Flood in Pitman Hall left students bailing out their rooms
A flood in Pitman Hall at approximately 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening forced students on the eleventh floor to evacuate their water damaged rooms and immediately start scooping the water into the drain of the nearest men's washroom. The water, from a pipeline break, dripped down the residence's west staircase all the way to the third floor.
The pipe broke in Evan Reynolds room. The first-year chemical engineering student first noticed the problem when water started streaming from his thermostat. He reported it to maintenance, but said they did not respond in time to stop the flood. Later he was sitting in his floor's lounge when he saw another student run by soaked.
"Everything's destroyed," he said. "It stinks! My backup laptop is soaked but that's okay, it's my backup laptop. But the water damage is hard to deal with. Frankly, it doesn't matter as long as I have a place to get my work done."
Eleven students used their room's recycling bins and vacuums as shovels for the water. In assembly line fashion they cleaned up their rooms the best they could.
"All of my stuff on the floor is ruined," said first-year psychology student Jessica Gallino.
Dennis Mason, a first-year film student who was helping with the clean up, said water was leaking into his dorm room as well.
The mess dripped down to Floor 10 near the electrical closet and the yellow water accumulated in the west stairway all the way down to the bottom of the building.
Glen Weppler, manager of student housing, said students should report the water damage to maintenance staff.
"We expect to replace drywall and we're talking about things like carpet and furniture."
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