Broken water pipes, frozen drains, water dripping from the ceilings and expensive waterlogged equipment — that’s what some students, faculty and staff found when they walked into four campus buildings Monday morning.

The Food Sciences Building, Science Hall, Science II and Hamilton Hall all sustained water damage because of a weeklong bout of intensely cold weather, said Bob Currie, assistant director of facilities services.

Currie said damages to buildings happen when extreme weather changes take place, such as when it’s very wet, very dry or very cold. However, Paul Haggard, manager of facilities maintenance, said four pipes bursting on campus on the same day is unusual.

“We usually don’t have a lot of broken pipes due to cold weather [here],” said.

On the third floor of the Food Sciences Building, a frozen water line above a fume hood, or exhaust fan, burst in a lab space. The damage reached the first floor, where Jay-lin Jane, professor of food science and human nutrition, holds her laboratory class in rooms 1312 and 1313.

Black plastic trash bags lined the wet counters, covering lab equipment. Four of the five workers for the lab carefully lifted pieces of equipment to clean them off, as others continually mopped the floor.

“Right now the water is still dripping,” she said. “We’re not going to rush because we don’t want to jeopardize our instruments.”

Zihua Ao, post-doctoral resident associate in food science and human nutrition, said he is not sure if students, faculty and staff will be able to use the machinery in the Jane’s lab.

“We could get electrocuted … Boom!” Ao said.

“We don’t know what could happen.”

He said some of their research samples were ruined, and it could take one to two weeks to even begin research again.

A clear plastic shield suspended from the ceiling, spanning the length of the laboratory’s back wall, was originally put in place by Jane’s former research assistant to protect some instruments, but this time it was not enough. Three large pieces of equipment, plus accessories worth more than $150,000, were put in danger from the continually dripping water. Other instruments were completely out of order.

“We hope with budget cuts we’ll still get help. We don’t have the funds to replace [the equipment]. We need these for our research,” Jane said.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

This wasn’t the first time water has leaked into her lab, which is why the shield was in place, Jane said.

“I’ve been here for almost 17 years and this is not the worst damage I’ve seen,” she said. “Facilities management should look into what can be done to prevent further water damage.”

Ao picked up a computer keyboard off the counter and tilted it, causing water to spill out of the keys.

“This looks like a tropical forest,” he said.

Currie said the other three buildings sustained similar damages, but some were not as severe as others.

Science II experienced two leaks on opposite sides of the building — one from multiple breaks from frozen water lines in lab space on the sixth floor, and one from a frozen roof drain line to the ground floor level.

Hamilton Hall had a frozen roof drain line break in the Ethos magazine office on the ground floor, ruining some stacks of magazines but leaving computers unharmed.

Science Hall’s frozen water line broke next to an exterior wall exhaust fan on the ground floor.

Currie said for the pipes to burst, they had to completely freeze, which created pressure on the pipes as ice expanded, finally breaking them.

The pipes were insulated in most cases, Currie said.

“We’re going to be more cautious with these particular buildings in the future,” he said.

Haggard said he called in his emergency overtime ground crews at 3 a.m. to start cleaning up the water.

“It’s a challenge to keep up with all of this; we’re not at 100 percent staff because of the snow,” he said. “Hopefully, we won’t have any more [breaks] this week. We have enough snow to deal with.”