NMC floods during youth leader meeting

Newport Mesa Church’s second floor office level was flooded by a fire sprinkler pipe that had broken which made the water rush from the ceiling and into the Ministry Office in NMC on Monday, March 19.  

Sharon Noble, a family ministry pastor at NMC, was in the building at the time of the flooding along with a few youth leaders, which allowed most things of value to be saved. Despite all the chaos, Noble stayed calm and collective and is looking at this event in a positive light. 

“If we hadn’t been here then there would have been no way to really stop the water from flooding the building, because within about 20 minutes, we were able to turn off the water coming from the broken pipe,” Noble said.  

The situation was brought to their attention when a janitor asked them to turn off their music to see if they could hear the noise he had. 

“We could hear this faint buzzing sound and then heard a sudden rush of water running throughout the ceiling,” Noble said. 

She explained how they immediately saw water gushing from underneath the youth ministry office door.  When they opened the door, they saw water flowing from the ceiling like a river.  

“We grabbed our laptops and technology that we had been using during the meeting, and then the ceiling started to collapse due to the saturation from the flood,” Noble said. “The insulation and everything else that was underneath the fire sprinkler pipe was falling from the ceiling as well.” 

Repairs are being completed by Service Master who brought in heaters to dry up any water left over in the floors, walls and ceiling to avoid the growth of any mold, according to Noble.  

“The repairs should be completed within about three or more weeks until the offices will be able to be utilized again,” she said.  

Noble admitted that this hasn’t been the only flood that Newport Mesa Church has endured, as a similar incident occurred about 15 years ago.