In 2020, Hurricane Sally left a path of destruction at Pensacola State College and throughout much of the Florida Panhandle.
The slow-moving hurricane caused widespread wind damage, triggered storm surge flooding and brought record-setting rainfall. The region between Pensacola and Mobile, Alabama, was especially hard hit. The storm caused an estimated $7.3 billion in damage, with Pensacola receiving over 24 inches of rain. Some communities on Florida’s Panhandle — perched just above the Gulf of Mexico — saw as much as 36 inches of rain.
Pensacola State, already reeling from the pandemic earlier in the year, was forced to shut down for two weeks in the aftermath of the storm. “It wasn’t good,’’ college President Ed Meadows said about the impact of the storm on PSC after the hurricane hit. “I’ll be thankful to see 2020 go by.”
Ashmore Auditorium was one of the buildings impacted by the hurricane. Flooding reached as high as four feet on some buildings, but strong winds damaged the roof as well at the auditorium. “The entire roof needed to be replaced,’’ says Chris Nicholas, Senior Project Manager for WB Williamson Bros. The contractor was hired by Charlie O’Connor, General Manager of BELFOR Property Restoration, for the roofing project.
WB Williamson Bros. has served customers for four generations in Florida, and its team finds few construction surprises anymore. This project, however, included some unusual hardships.
Roof Hatch Dilemma
While most of the roofing project at Ashmore Auditorium was routine, one aspect was not.
The college was established in 1948 and changed its name from Pensacola Junior College to Pensacola State College in 2010. The auditorium was built during the stewardship of President Henry Ashmore, who served as the college president from 1954 to 1963.
The building was extensively remodeled in 1990. The auditorium includes seating for 264 people. Ashmore is also home to the college’s fine arts center and its performing arts department. The arts community at Pensacola State is a favorite among students and offers comprehensive education in music and theater.
But when WB Williamson Bros. went to replace the roof’s smoke vents, the crew found an unanticipated dilemma. “We weren’t aware the size of the existing smoke vents was no longer built,”Nicholas says. “The existing vents were so old they didn’t make them anymore. We had to custom build them and reconfigure the roof design to make it work.”
Finding a Solution
The BILCO Company helped WB Williamson Bros. solve the challenge by manufacturing special sized vents for the project. The original plan requested two smoke vents, each 16 feet by 8 feet.
WB Williamson Bros. went back to BILCO and ordered three vents, each one 4 feet, 8 inches by 8 feet. The vents were spliced where hinges meet between the three units. The new vents were able to provide the auditorium with the venting necessary to meet code requirements. They were chosen because of the application above the auditorium, which hosts concerts, plays and other events throughout the year.
“It took quite a considerable amount of time and planning to make sure everything went well,’’ Nicholas says. “We thought OK, we’ll put up a couple of hatches, no big deal. But that wasn’t the case at all.”
Nicholas notes that Joe Williamson, co-owner of WB Williamson Bros., worked with BILCO and its distributor, Waldo Brothers, to come up with a solution. “It took a team effort with our distributor, BILCO, and Joe Williamson to make the revised plan work,” Nicholas says. “We had to put in structural steel beams to support the weight of these new vents. We installed the new smoke vents and flashing around them on the new roof.”
Other Challenges Arise
Installing smaller smoke vents and splicing them together to work as one unit was a novel solution, but WB Williamson Bros. faced additional issues.
The previous hatches, which Nicholas estimated to be around 20 years old, proved troublesome to remove. “We thought once we removed the fasteners, they would come up fairly easily,’’ he says. “We had a crane out there, but they couldn’t be hoisted.”
Joe Williamson and a three-man crew cut the smoke vents apart and removed them by hand. “We replaced the wood blocking and created a new curb,’’ he says. “We also had to install the structural steel beam from the roof, because we were not able to work from below. There was no way to put scaffolding up.”
Wires, ropes, and pulleys inside the auditorium for theatrical performances prevented workers from installing scaffolding. “There is a level of gadgetry with all the wires, ropes and lighting in the attic space of the auditorium that made it a difficult project,’’ Nicholas says. “There was a limited amount of attic space above the stage where we could work. We were up 120 to 140 feet in the air.”
Critical Life Safety Piece
Smoke vents are an important part of any large-scale project. The vents protect property and support firefighters in bringing a fire under control by removing smoke, heat and gases from a burning building.
Vents are ideal for venues such as auditoriums, factories, warehouses and retail facilities. Mechanical smoke vents are activated by the melting of a fusible link.
The vents are critical in protecting loss of life and property. By opening automatically, the vent gives smoke and lethal gases a place to escape rather than building up within in a confined space. The vents also help improve the visibility for firefighters and prevent damage that could lead to a building collapse.
“There were a lot of people involved in this project because it was so unusual,’’ Nicholas says. “Sometimes when we get a special order, as we did in this case, it’s very difficult to get something right. Just about anything can go wrong. We worked with a great distributor in Waldo Brothers, and we were pleased with their service. They delivered when they said they were going to deliver, and it worked out extremely well.”
Devastating Impact
The path of destruction from Hurricane Sally will be felt within the Pensacola community for a long time. BELFOR dispatched more than 750 workers to Pensacola State College, where it completed water extraction, provided refrigeration trailers and set up six emergency generators for power distribution. The college’s library took a particularly hard hit, and contents had to be inventoried and cataloged as salvaged or non-salvageable, stored and returned to the correct locations when repairs were complete.
While the campus was undergoing restoration, college classes remained in session as workers remediated issues caused by the hurricane.
The hurricane rocked the college, which extends across 641 acres and includes nearly 10,000 students. The college has rebounded strong from the one-two punch of the hurricane and the pandemic and continues to be an important part of the state’s education community.
About the author: Thomas Renner writes on building, construction, architecture and other trade industry topics for publications throughout the United States.
TEAM
Restoration Contractor: BELFOR Property Restoration, Birmingham, Michigan, belfor.com
Roofing Contractor: WB Williamson Bros., Fort Myers, Florida, wbwilliamsonbros.com
MATERIALS
Smoke Vents: The BILCO Company, bilco.com
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