The heavy rain last Friday flooded many buildings, both residential and recreational.
“I have worked here for many years, and though we have occasional situations such as these, there has never been anything of this magnitude before that resulted from heavy rain,” Interim Director of Residential Life Laurel Contomanolis said.
The residential buildings most affected were those on the quad – Lovejoy Hall, Hoeing Hall and Gilbert Hall in particular. Many students woke up early in the morning to the buildup of rainwater on their room floor.
Students most affected in these buildings were those who live on the first floor.
The effects of the rain were significant and the flooding had a strong impact.
“I live in Lovejoy and I was pretty frustrated over the way that the school handled the problem,” sophomore Josh Hatcher said. “We’ve gotten little to no notification about what to expect if it rains again or how we’re supposed to pay for the damage to our things.”
Continuing, he said “I’ve tried calling the quad offices multiple times and have gotten answering machines. The damage to my room was fairly minimal since I was in my room at the time. I feel sorry for those who were out.”
Students with damage to their belongings were given ten dollars on their Flex accounts as well as priority in the laundry rooms to dry their wet clothing and rugs. ResLife is currently following up with students affected by the flood, especially those with ruined rugs, and will be replacing any that are permanently damaged.
“Immediate restorations were brought to the buildings that were hit,” Interim Director of Residential Life Laurel Contomanolis said. “Facilities staff got to the sites as soon as we had word of the damage. We rectified the situation as quickly as possible by extracting the carpets, leaking out water and doing our best to return all the rooms to normalcy.”
Strong Memorial Hospital called a utility alert at approximately 12:30 p.m. due to heavy rain, which caused water to enter the facility at select locations.
“The only patient-care area affected by the water was the ground floor of Strong’s Ambulatory Care Facility, which houses outpatient cardiology offices and services,” according to a press release from Strong. “Patient treatments already in progress at the time were completed. The area was evacuated and remaining appointments for the day were cancelled.”
Wilson Commons also flooded very quickly. The Pit and downstairs bathrooms flooded around 1:30 p.m. Food services, facilities and the dining staff all helped out immediately. Luckily, there was no permanent damage.
“We moved everyone to Hirst Lounge and taped off the eating area downstairs,” Director of Wilson Commons Student Activities Anne-Marie Algier said. “Since everyone helped out so much we were able to open up again by 4 p.m. There was an incredible amount of water, but we took care of it in record time.”
Many students were already soaked from the downpour outside and found the flood amusing, but also a hassle because they were forced to eat lunch elsewhere.
“I was already soaking wet from walking to Wilson Commons so it didn’t really bother me,” sophomore Jess Guidi said. “They cleaned it up really fast.”
The houses on the fraternity quad also had flooding problems in the basements.
“We found the flooding too late, but by the time we did, our basement was already flooded about a foot deep and everyone was really willing to help out,” sophomore Alex Aronovitz said. “To get the majority of the rain out, a few people started pushing water into the kitchen where an unclogged drain was. Most of the water was gone by that night, however all the mud and dirt was not cleaned until facilities made it to our house on Saturday evening.”
The water was cleaned up quickly and by Friday night activities resumed as usual.
Lewis can be reached at slewis@campustimes.org.
