I Need a Beer!

Two building evacuations in one week! First the earthquake and then about 12:30 this afternoon a kid walked in and said "It's like a waterfall outside." I walked out and saw this cascade of water coming down. At first I couldn't tell where it was coming from, I thought maybe a pipe had burst on roof but then someone pointed to where the fire hydrant used to be. Apparently someone backed over it. I have since learned that fire hydrants are made to snap off because they don't want the underground piping to be damaged. Wow! What a display!
I then noticed that water was flowing pretty heavy and was likely to enter the building through the front doors and was probably already entering through the meeting room door. As I flashed back to my last experience of water entering a building--the University of Hawaii flood of 2004--I decided I needed to evacuate the library. I called our Regional office and got the OK. The next 30 minutes until the water was shut off was spent coordinating with the firemen (cute by the way) trying to minimize the potential damage. The rugs in the meeting room were already getting wet so we used one to block the meeting room door and one more to block the patio door where water was coming into the children's area onto the carpet. We then unplugged the computers and taped the cords to the table to keep them from getting wet. I then asked another librarian to locate the breaker box to shut off the breakers for the computers. I asked the Library Assistant to take photos to document the damage. And I called the Regional office about a gazillion times to get everything coordinated.
Oh, by the way there was a program today. I reopened the library and then began another evacuation as new information about the a/c & sprinkler system filtered through and just as I started the second evacuation, updates came that both were back in working order. Evacuation aborted. In the mean time I had the children's librarian cancel the program, then let the performer know that maybe we would have it and another call that we would be having it after all. With areas properly taped off, the meeting room closed and the children's area cleared out for the program all went well.
I filed all my reports, sent photos off to people who might need them. I have a great team that worked well together that made the situation better than could be expected. Yet, I am drained and called J to see if he will go have a beer with me tonight. Bless him, he said yes.
But, I have to say that I am now qualified to say which kind of problem I would prefer to deal with--water or an earthquake and I definitely prefer the water. Kind of strange seeing as I am an aquaphobe.