wfn.org | Presbyterian Center Business Suspended Until March 10

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

6-March-1997 
 
97116   PRESBYTERIAN CENTER BUSINESS SUSPENDED UNTIL MARCH 10 
                     IN THE WAKE OF OHIO RIVER FLOODING 
 
                                             By Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- Operations are officially suspended at the Presbyterian 
Center through Friday after water from the swollen Ohio River flooded and 
damaged the primary parking facility used by denominational staff. 
 
     The Center itself, according to interim executive director the Rev. 
Frank Diaz, will remain open for essential meetings that are to be 
determined by program area supervisiors. 
 
     The building sits near the banks of the Ohio River, which is not 
expected to crest until sometime March 7 after nearly one week of some of 
the worst flooding this river valley has seen since 1964 -- with deaths and 
massive property damage reported along the river's tributaries from West 
Virginia to the Missippi River.  
 
     "The worst we are anticipating here is minor flooding in the 
basement," said Diaz, referring to some seepage that is currently being 
reporting in the Center's basement, presumably because of rising pressure 
from groundwater.  "But even that is a remote possiblity." 
 
     Staff reporting to work March 6-7 are parking at the state fairgrounds 
at the city's edge and are taking shuttles supplied by the city of 
Louisville through Monday only.  Mary Russell, the press spokesperson for 
Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, told the Presbyterian News Service that 
the city will find parking for Center employees for the period that the 
garage is under repair. 
 
       Normal work schedules are to resume March 10 at the Presbyterian 
Center, according to Diaz, and parking arrangements after Monday are to be 
announced. 
 
     "It could be days or weeks, or in the worst case, months," associate 
director for property Bill Gatewood told the Staff Leadership Team about 
alternative parking arrangements at it's emergency meeting Monday.  "[The 
Mayor's Office and the Humana Corporation] said engineers are reporting no 
structural problems [to the garage]. 
 
     "But it is difficult to be definitive." 
 
     Water is leaking out of the buckled first floor of the parking 
facility and gushing out of the garage entrance onto Witherspoon Street, 
presumably because of ground water pressure bursting pipes underneath the 
structure.  Though the Ohio River is not expected to crest until March 7, 
Ron Brown, a spokesperson for the Municipal Sewer District, told the 
Presbyterian News Service that the agency is not "anticipating" the river 
to rise much more in the downtown area than it is now.  
 
     Muddy river water is currently pressing on two sides of the 
Witherspoon Street parking facility which serves both the Center's 670 
employees and another 1,300 employees of the Humana Corporation, a managed 
care and health insurance company which is headquartered here in 
Louisville.  Humana owns the garage and rents space in it to the 
Presbyterian Center. 
 
     Approximately 280 Center employees arrived for work March 6, though 
few remained through the afternoon.  The building will remain open March 7 
for those who elect to come to the Center, though operations are suspended. 
      
     "There's just a lot of stress now," said Congregational Ministries 
Director the Rev. Eunice Poethig at the leadership team meeting, speaking 
of pressures on staff.  "Traffic is difficult ... what usually takes 20 
minutes now takes an hour.  People have to take alternative routes.  They 
have neighbors who need help right now.  But for others," she said, "it is 
stressful not to be able to their work ... to know that it is piling up." 
 
     The Staff Association is reporting that approximately 25 staffmembers 
suffered varying degrees of property damage in recent flooding, with 
several staffmembers reporting extensive property loss. 

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For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

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