Historic Paramount Theater Floods... Again

By Sara Stewart, Reporter

Crews work to pump water out of the Paramount Theatre after a burst pipe flooded the historic theater six months after flood waters seriously damaged the structure.

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By Nick Weig

Story Created: Dec 26, 2008 at 3:25 PM CST

Story Updated: Dec 26, 2008 at 6:15 PM CST

CEDAR RAPIDS - "It was a big line whatever it was that broke," says Joel Roberts, the plumber who found the flooding problems.

That water line break floods the basement of the Paramount Theater for the second time this year, and nearly fills the building's orchestra pit.

Crews are pumping out what was at least eleven feet of water.

It's a process that will take days to complete, but they're lucky to have caught it.

The plumber who discovered it almost took the day off.

Once again, pumps are trying to drain the water that invaded overnight.

Joel Roberts discovered the flood while he was working next door at the Paramount office building.
Once he saw that there, he knew it'd be here.

"It just brought back memories of the spring. Every basement was full, it looked like it was 6 months ago, same thing-that full," says Roberts.

But until all this water is out, they won't know for sure which line burst.

"We can't tell what it is because the waters got the basement filled up to get down there to see what's broke," he says.

But he and the management company say it likely has to something to do with the warmer weather.

"What was froze finally thawed out, broke apart and blew," says Roberts.

This second flood is happening right as they were starting to figure out how much it would cost to repair the damage from June's flood. The management company says it's thankful that this time- it's clean water they're pumping out.

Either way, it'll add another layer to the recovery process.

"It was pretty good here, it was pretty dry. Everything was looking pretty good," says Roberts.

It may take the entire weekend to finish pumping all this water out.
After that, they'll have to re-start the drying process.

Once they get the water out of the basement-the management company says they're going to have to trouble shoot *exactly how the water got in.

It says that may be a trial and error process.

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