Leakage in basement causes phone outage at ENMU on Monday

Workers at Eastern New Mexico University on Monday discovered that a break in the cooling system pump over the weekend had caused flooding in the Administration Building basement, leaving several buildings without telephone service.

“It was pretty minor. We have pumps that cool around campus and one of the pumps developed a crack,” said Scott Smart, the vice-president of Business Affairs at ENMU. He also noted that the basement was the only area that was flooded.

Because some telephone equipment is housed in the basement, Smart said that several buildings remained without telephone service during business hours Monday. He said officials hope that the telephone service will be restored Tuesday.

Buildings affected include the Administration Building, from which the university operator answers calls, the Student Academic Services Building, Roosevelt County Museum and Curry, Harding and Quay halls.

“At first we thought it might be flooding from the rain storm this past weekend, but it wasn’t,” Smart said. “We will have to replace the pump and six cards in our telephone system.” He explained that cards are like circuit boards.