We noticed tonight around 7 PM that there was a lot of brown water in the control room and also in the interferometer area mostly concentrated around the north wall between the LSC rack and the AP table.
The leak was mainly in the NW corner of the interferometer area.
The construction crew had set up sandbags, plastic sheet, and gravel to block the drains outside of the 40m along the north wall. The rain had produced ponds and lakes outside in the construction area. Once the level got high enough this leaked through holes in the 40m building walls (these are crappy walls).
We called the on-call facilities team (1 guy). He showed up, cut through the construction fence lock, and then unblocked the drains. This guy was pretty good (although inscrutable); he adjusted the sandbags to control the flow of the lake into the drains. He went along the wall and unblocked all 3 drains; there were mini-lakes forming there which he felt would eventually start leaks all along our north wall.
In the morning we'll need volunteers to move equipment around under Steve's direction while the floor gets mopped up. There's dirt and mud all over, underneath the chambers and racks.
Luckily Alberto spotted this early and he, Jon, Andrey and Steve kept the water from spreading and then scooped it all up with a wet-vac that the facilities guy brought over.
Extra Napoleon to them for late evening mud clearing work.
Many pictures were taken: Update and pictures will appear later. |