O’Bannon residents found themselves standing outside in the cold for about 30 minutes around 2 a.m. Friday after a one-and-a-half inch pipe burst on the third floor, flooding the residence hall.
Director of Housing and Residence Life Laurie Berry said the pipe was part of the dry sprinkler system.
“Once that broke open, large amounts of water started pouring in. This set off fire alarms, which is how we found out about it,” Berry said.
Berry arrived on campus just after 3 a.m. and by 3:30 a.m. physical plant workers had extracted most of the standing water, she said.
Physical Plant Assistant Director Miles Mann said a total of 12 rooms were affected by the flooding, which he estimates will cost $60,000 to repair.
No major damages occurred that prompted immediate removal of the drywall, Mann said.
“We’re trying to get the hallways and a couple of the rooms completed as soon as possible, and then go back in spring break and concentrate on the work that’s going to affect the most rooms,” he said.
Only one room had severe enough damage that its four residents were relocated to temporary housing. Two residents in less damaged rooms elected to move.
The plant workers will work around the students who chose to remain in the affected rooms during repairs.
“Obviously in situations like this we want to displace as few students as possible because it’s just hard to be displaced,” Berry said.
Freshman Hannah Sander was displaced and relocated after Housing discovered her room on the third floor had received too much damage to remain there.
“Both my area and bathroom rugs were covered in water and also my Tempur-Pedic mattress pad, all of which got ruined,” Sander said.
Sander said her room had no drywall, carpet or ceiling when she returned after the flood.
Housing assured Sander that she would either be compensated for any of her items that were damaged or they would be replaced, she said.
“As of right now, my damaged items are still sitting in the bottom of O’Bannon,” Sander said.
Sander was moved to the Bigger apartment building, which she said wasn’t an inconvenience due to the short walk to campus.
This was not the first time O’Bannon has flooded this school year.
Freshman social work major Cindy Schonegg said while waiting to go back into her room, campus security revealed to her that her room was one of the affected rooms in the basement of the building.
“I freaked out because I thought my stuff was ruined because everything I had was on the floor since I had just moved back in from winter break,” Schonegg said.
She was relieved when she was able to return to her room to find only two inches of standing water had stopped right before entering her room, but said her suite-mates’ room contained visible cracks in the ceiling.
Berry said O’Bannon flooded due to stemming from the pipes within the wet sprinkler system during Fall 2014, but that occurrence was “not the same system, nor the same place.”
Bobby Shipman contributed to this story.
