Workers crowd a hallway in Moore Hall while trying to clean up water from a burst pipe. (Kelsey McKinney)
Officials, maintenance workers and custodial staff from all over campus were dispatched to Moore Hall Wednesday afternoon to address a building-wide flood. 3,700 gallons of water began pouring into residents’ rooms around 2 p.m. The water leak originated in the attic, where the chill pipe – which is part of the air-cooling system, broke away from another pipe according to Mike Paul, director of energy management of CPPO. The water gathered and began to seep through penetrations in the floor. And from there, the water made its way through each of the four floors below it.
“There was just no way anybody could have known,” said Paul.
The pipe was last worked on six years ago, and Paul believes the soldering job was done poorly, but that somehow it lasted six years without incident.
The third and ground floors were the hardest hit. The third floor, located directly below the attic, took the initial brunt of the flooding. Water eventually made its way through floors two and one, eventually collecting in the ground floor. The water had nowhere else to go.
Because the chill pipe is located in the center of the attic, rooms closer to the center of the building were most affected. Nearly all end rooms were spared from water damage.
“I heard something that sounds like a shower and I looked over [into the kitchen] and there was nothing on the floor,” said Max Lysak, a first-year whose room is in the center of the ground floor. “Fifteen minutes later I looked and over and there was water coming from the stove vent and the bathroom vent.”
Some students, like Lysak, tried to barricade water from reaching their carpet by placing towels on the ground. Most rooms wound up with varying amounts of water damage.
By 2:45 p.m. the water was shut off to the chill pipe and about 15 minutes later teams of maintenance and custodial workers converged on the building to begin clean-up efforts.
They began vacuuming standing water and ripping the baseboard material from the walls. To allow for better water extraction, holes were drilled in the lower four inches of wall where water had seeped behind the drywall.
Officials evaluated damage to rooms, placing a note on each door indicating the status as either “dry” or “wet.”Residence Life and Student Housing officials and all student staff from the theology quad came together to begin resolving students’ problems. They held an informal meeting outside the hall at 3:30 p.m. to explain the situation and answer questions. At the meeting, a sign-up sheet was sent around to gather names and contact numbers to inform students of their rooms’ status later in the day.
Students were informed that wet clothing could be taken care of, free of cost, by Mustang Laundry. Since water gathered in many residents’ closets, shoes were also damaged. Residents with water-damaged shoes were told they could take them to Cobblestone to be repaired.
Damage to electronics could be taken care of on an individual basis.
A worst-case scenario was presented that the air-conditioning might not be repaired for a few more days. But by about 9 p.m. the air-conditioning was back on.
By night fall industrial blowers were airing out residents’ rooms, and many students chose to spend the night with friends or family due to the noise.
About 10 students were temporarily relocated to open beds in various residence halls on campus.
Thursday morning, the damage will be re-assessed and students will be notified of the next step. CPPO says it will take some time to repair the extensive damage.
“The rooms won’t be back to normal for a week,” estimated Paul.
