Posted on 09/04/2012 8:46:51 AM PDT by rawhide
HALLANDALE BEACH— A little crack can cause a mighty mess — and a heap of disappointment.
"The casino's closed today," Lucille Sfalanga told customer after customer Monday outside the Gulfstream Racing and Casino Park.
A mysterious chink in the casino's floor-to-ceiling fish tank caused a deluge around 12:15 a.m. Sunday, forcing the two-story casino to close even while the village's shops, restaurants and racetrack remained open.
On Monday, dehumidifiers and fans were at full blast, removing moisture from soggy carpets on both floors. Engineers were still trying to figure out what caused the leak, said Mike Couch, director of gaming at Gulfstream.
Sfalanga was working in the casino the night the 13,000-gallon saltwater tank cracked.
She remembers around 100 people hanging out on the second floor, drinking or gambling near the 13-foot-high aquarium, the centerpiece of the room.
"All we heard was a big bang and all the water started shooting out the top of the tank," she said from her perch outside the casino. "It sounded like a cannon."
Within two minutes, all but two feet of water had streamed from the tank, Couch said.
The aquarium was home to more than 100 fish, including two small nurse sharks, angelfish, grouper and lionfish.
Soon after the tank flooded the room, casino managers called in the crew that maintains the aquarium to help rescue the fish.
Workers lowered a ladder into the tank, then climbed down and carried the fish to safety.
"The good news is, all the fish survived," Couch said.
Now, some of the slot machines may need to be replaced, along with the carpeting, TVs, ATMs and redemption machines, Couch said.
"The water worked its way downstairs and essentially rained on the equipment," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
Beautiful tank, well it was.
It drained from the top?
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