[CAUT] Tornado Damage at Union University

[Ron Poire]

That's Great Fred,  I wouldn't have thought of that.
I had an experience with a Hamilton upright action 60's vintage, which had 
gotten sluggish.  As i remember, the music director of the church was antsy 
to have the action back.  She hounded me to get it back and take some 
shortcuts if necessary.  I went after the action with a hair dryer, and hgot 
it too dry.  Fortunately, I didn't ruin any flange bushings, but I still had 
to tighten flange screws, and reglue some loose jacks.

I wanted to let it dry naturally, after doing the 8/1 alcohol/water 
treatment, which worked for freeing up the sluggish flanges.
Ron Poire
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 8:38 AM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tornado Damage at Union University


> So sorry to hear about all of the destruction, loss of life, and 
> injuries.
> About the pianos, I would advise doing something to protect them from  the 
> drying process. Typically there will be heat and fans running, and  they 
> will do considerable damage to wooden parts. I'd try to wrap the  pianos 
> in plastic before that happens. Better to have a couple day's  high 
> humidity locked in than expose to a week or more of the drying, I  think. 
> I had a pipe burst flood in my wife's piano studio, and the  strength of 
> the fans that were brought in was astounding. I had taped  plastic 
> sheeting over the piano, and it came out unharmed.
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
> fssturm at unm.edu
>
>
>
> On Feb 7, 2008, at 5:28 AM, Scott E. Thile wrote:
>
>> Wow, that's terrible news, Bob!
>>
>> But I'm very glad to hear you and your family, as well as all the 
>> students,
>> faculty, and staff at Union are OK. I was thinking about your  situation 
>> when
>> we got the news about Union being hit. It's hard to imagine what  that 
>> must
>> have been like to walk through that mess yesterday. I hope and pray 
>> you're
>> able to get things back in service as soon as possible, but it  sounds 
>> like
>> it will be a while before Union is up and running again.
>>
>> One thing that could cause severe damage to the pianos is having the 
>> very
>> high humidity raise the moisture content in the wood yesterday, and  then
>> having it freeze over night. I've worked on older pianos that went 
>> through
>> freeze/thaw cycles like that, and in some cases the wood is extremely
>> brittle.
>>
>> We were hit by the same storm systems here, but had no damage to  speak 
>> of.
>> It sure was a crazy evening though. Our thoughts and prayers are  with 
>> all
>> those in the path of these storms that lost family and property.
>>
>> Scott
>>
>> Scott E. Thile, RPT
>> Piano/Instrument Technician
>> ---------------------------
>> Dept. of Music, Murray State University
>> 504 Fine Arts Building, Murray, KY 42071
>> Office Phone: 270-809-4396
>> http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/index.html
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On
>>> Behalf Of Bob Hull
>>> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 12:12 AM
>>> To: College and University Technicians
>>> Subject: [CAUT] Tornado Damage at Union University
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear College and Univ. Techs:
>>>
>>> On Tuesday night, Jackson, TN was hit hard by a
>>> tornado(s) with some of the most severe damage
>>> occurring at the school I service, Union University.
>>> Most of the dorms are destroyed.  No students lost
>>> their lives and most injuries were minor.  Perhaps as
>>> much as $20 million worth of damage was sustained
>>> according to the Univ. president.
>>> You may have seen some of the footage on national
>>> television.
>>>
>>> Part of the roof of the three-story music building was
>>> torn off and water flooded down to the first floor
>>> where the pianos were.  During the ordeal, I was away
>>> in Oklahoma taking care of a parent who has suffered a
>>> broken hip. As I came back into town today, I went by
>>> the school to see if I could help with any thing.  One
>>> of the profs gave me a tour of the dark and wet
>>> building.  Our two Hamburg D's were in the recital
>>> hall which flooded (not deeply).  They had rolled them
>>> out into the hallway which was not as "wet". - I think
>>> just the carpet is wet in the hall.   Both were
>>> covered at the time of the tornado and water flooding.
>>> One cover was wet when they came to look at it this
>>> morning. The humidity in the bldg. was extremely high
>>> and they were going to have someone tomorrow working
>>> on that because they are afraid mold will begin to
>>> form.  Tonight the temp. will drop to 30 F and there
>>> is no heat of course in the building.  I'll have to
>>> look around more tomorrow.   I couldn't see anything
>>> without a flashlight.
>>> I had just begun my round of tunings for the new
>>> semester.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions will be appreciated for evaluating and
>>> advising the music department.  I don't think that any
>>> were directly rained on - they may have just gotten
>>> very damp.  I'll find out more later. The main thing
>>> is that these students and their families were blessed
>>> that no one was killed by the storm as severe as it
>>> was.
>>>
>>> Hundreds of student and faculty cars were destroyed.
>>>
>>> Gratefully,
>>> Bob Hull
>>>
>>> P.S. My family, home and shop which are about 5 miles
>>> away were untouched.  In the shop are three nice
>>> family heirloom grands of customers - two just about
>>> to be restrung and one to be refinished.  But as long
>>> as my family was protected, the other things don't
>>> really matter.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________________________
>>> ______________________
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>> shopping
>>
>>
>