PORTLAND, Ore. --Sprinklers caused nearly $1 million in damages to the lower level of the Portland State University bookstore Sunday night.
Cleaning crews spent most of Monday removing the ruined merchandise and books. There was nearly half a foot of standing water in the building about 11 p.m. Sunday night when bookstore manager Ken Brown first found out what had happened.
By the time the sprinkler system was disarmed books and backpacks were floating in about 80,000 gallons of water.
"It was more than 3 feet deep in some places," Brown said.
Staff members worked with crews to clean up and sort out the merchandise.
Brown said that the sprinkler's monitor malfunctioned. As a result, the tank kept refilling and then flowing over, repeatedly.
PSU was without a bookstore for most of the morning, leaving some students frustrated and others amused.
Staff was pulling bar codes from each piece of merchandise in order to appropriately catalog the damage.
The clothes will be put to good use, though. Brown said the university would ship all the waterlogged clothes to Haiti to help those "who really need it."
