Flooded Wells Fargo Basement Temporarily Closes Rape Crisis Center

The buzz of fans could be heard in the basement of the Wells Fargo building downtown on Tuesday, as employees of the Rape Crisis Center attempted to air out their offices after the weekend flood.

The damage appears to be minimal and restricted to the carpeting and baseboards, however the presence of water and debris has kept three employees at home who can’t currently work out of their offices. The center is currently on a partial shutdown.

Rape Crisis Center Executive Director Karla Payne and a CPA were manning the space on Tuesday, and Payne said the water damage is more of a nuisance than anything else.

“It’s off the floors mostly, but there were a couple of pieces of furniture that got wet, so some of that is probably going to have to be replaced,” Payne said. “Because we rent, our landlord is probably going to replace the carpet, so we don’t necessarily have to worry about that, thank goodness.”

Dirt, debris and pieces of chipped off paint and wall chunks will mean the staff will have a lot of cleaning to do, Payne said, but she hopes to have everything back up and running as soon as possible. The damaged furniture was a cupboard and shelves where informational materials and brochures are kept, she said.

“There’s a drain that goes from the top of the roof from the seventh floor that kind of meets up with another pipe that runs on the second floor and those two meet and go down the rest of the way [to the basement],” Payne explained. “Usually, if there’s just an inch or two of water, it can handle it, but since there was seven inches it busted that pipe, so it came right down here into the basement.”

Also in the basement is the storage room for the law firm Smith, Finley and Rose. Administrative Clerk Kathy Benne said the damage to the law firm’s storage room was minimal and extended to several boxes containing files that were already slated for destruction. “When everything gets dried out, I think it will all be fine,” she said.