Million-gallon water leak hits church

St. Paul's

cleans up

after weekend

catastrophe

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Jerry Bentz drove past the new construction site at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church last Saturday morning and noticed water around the foundation of the new building.

He stopped for a closer look.

Bentz found high water in the existing church basement and a large amount of water in the construction area next to the church in the 200 block of North State Street.

Sometime Friday night, a water fitting gave way in the construction area.

A foot-long, five-inch hole in a valve allowed clean water to rush into the new construction area, flooding it rapidly.

"It was like a six-inch pipe open for eight hours," Bentz said. "A new water main was just installed and a "T" valve installed, then it broke."

The water flowed from the construction site into the church basement through holes cut in the floor for new sewer lines.

Water was still flowing when Bentz surveyed the area.

He quickly called the general contractor, Heymann Construction and the New Ulm Fire Department.

Two fire trucks pumped water out of the church basement and construction site for four hours.

A large turnout of the congregation helped clean up Saturday morning.

Because a cement floor was not poured yet in the new construction site, gravel underneath the site helped absorb water.

Things could have been worse.

"The damage would have been worse if the water had been there longer or been dirty," St. Paul's Church Administrator Ron Schmidt said. "We'll have to repaint some walls and replace things like wiring, furnishings, a large kitchen with appliances and lots of choir music."

The front of a file cabinet blew off because it expanded so much due to the water.

Eighty-six choir robes will be dry cleaned and used again, according to Schmidt.

He praised the fire department and help from parishioners whose extra efforts helped save the site.

A damage estimate is not yet available.

Late Tuesday afternoon, about a dozen Martin Luther College ministerial students took a break from their studies and helped remove water-damaged items from the church basement.

"We're in training to be servants," said one student. "It's a nice break. I've been studying just about all day."

Items hauled away included water-warped volumes of (Martin) "Luther's Works" that were translated from German to English.

A piano and 35-inch color TV were also water damaged.

The piano keyboard was hard as stone ­ keys swollen tight from absorbing the water.

Chinaware and stacks of plates lined the counters of the kitchen. Bentz said the flooding will not hamper construction of an adjacent parish center. The project is scheduled to be completed by July 1, 2001.

Appropriate church committees will decide what to do about funeral luncheons and other activities planned for the existing church basement.

The New Ulm Public Utilities Department showed that city water levels were 1.2 to 1.3 million gallons lower than they should have been on a holiday weekend.

City water level measuring instruments showed the level began to drop at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

Public Utilities department head Bob Stevenson said the 1.3 million-gallon loss of city water did not pose a fire protection problem to New Ulm because 8 million gallons of storage water is maintained at any one time.