Subfreezing temperatures last weekend led to water damage in seven buildings on the main campus.

Fifteen to 20 offices and laboratories sustained some degree of damage when water pipes or other equipment froze and ruptured, said Maurice "Mo" Hollman, associate vice chancellor for facilities management.

Apart from what Hollman described as minimal physical damage, the university sustained the loss of 73 quail — caught under a broken pipe at the Avian Sciences Research Facility west of Highway 113.

Hollman said temperatures dipped to around 21 degrees on campus Sunday morning. Earlier in the week, he said, as the state sent out freeze warnings, the campus started preparing.

Hollman said maintenance crews wrapped pipes and shut down and drained equipment where practical, and put workers on standby in case they were needed for emergency response.

Indeed they were, as crews worked Sunday and Monday — when the campus was shut down for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday — to clean up the mess.

The problem could have been much worse, Hollman said, considering that the campus has 1,250 buildings and numerous exposed pipes and valves and pieces of roof-mounted equipment.

Hollman said water damage on the central campus occurred in Briggs, Wickson, Wright and Young halls, and the Life Sciences Building. He also reported damage in Tupper Hall in the Health Sciences District.

"The majority of cleanup work has been completed and the buildings are in good condition save for some damaged and missing ceiling tiles," Hollman said in a Tuesday e-mail to the campus's emergency team.

"I do not believe that we have incurred major damages; however, it will probably take a few days before individual researchers and office occupants in some 10 to 15 rooms assess their particular situations."

At the Avian Science Research Facility, a pipeline froze and ruptured in a ceiling within a room, and the ceiling collapsed, he said.

The birds that died were directly under the leak, said Jacqueline "Jackie" Pisenti, animal resource manager at the Avian Science Research Facility. They became wet and cold, and died of hypothermia, she said.

The birds accounted for about a third of the university's quail breeding colony — providing fertilized eggs for research.

Seventy to 80 other birds in the colony were threatened, Pisenti said. "I was able to warm them up and they're fine," she said.

Pisenti said water also dripped into rooms that house 27 Amazon parrots — and they all survived.