On May 19, an Estuary Senior Center Thrift Shop employee was greeted at 7:30 a.m. by a foot of water overflowing the center's 9,000-square-foot basement. The center's sprinkler system apparatus had a "fluke" accident as the back flow valve rusted off, shooting water with high enough pressure to penetrate the wall and insulation. The water proceeded through the game room and Thrift Shop, making its way into several storage and utility spaces.

All activities have been suspended in the basement and displaced to the main lobby until further notice.

Service Master was called in to clean up the mess, leaving a slew of heavy duty dehumidifiers and fans in an attempt to dry up the watery mess left behind on all the vinyl, sheet rock, and various items in the high-traffic space.

"The electric bill is going to be triple what it normally is running all these fans," said Estuary Council of Seniors Controller Stan Mingione.

Repair work is expected to take a minimum of eight weeks to complete. Excessive presence of mold or special-orders item could delay completion.

"There's a lot of activities people can't do anymore," Mingione stated, noting that the Game Room, used by seniors to hold card games, pool tournaments, and even a Wii gaming league, is a complete loss.

The slope of the flooring left pools varying from one foot to inches to dry spots in the Thrift Shop. Sand bags were unsuccessfully used in an attempt to protect the exercise room.

"Things like this happen, you realize how much stuff we have," said Maintenance Supervisor Bruce Lizotte.