Water pipes burst in multiple residence halls over the break causing flooding and water damage that made many dorms uninhabitable.
Between Dec. 23 and Dec. 26, freezing temperatures caused pipes to burst in dorms across both campuses while many students were away for the holidays, resulting in water damage that made many dorms uninhabitable.
In an email sent by the university, students were asked to reside at their permanent residence if they were able to do so, stating, “Due to the volume of impacted students, we are not able to house everyone in a temporary on-campus space and we are asking you to reside at your primary residence until your room repairs are completed and we are able to allow you to move back in.”
Students away from campus were informed of the flooding through their student email, followed by a link to a form that the school would use to assign students a temporary living situation.
Steve Gray, Executive Director of Housing, Residence Life and Strategic Analysis, shared that the repairs are estimated to take 6 to 10 weeks with a total of 93 units impacted across 6 communities. Gray said that most of the flooding could be attributed to fire sprinklers and outdoor pipes freezing, causing them to burst. According to Gray, an email was sent on Dec. 20 from Housing and Residence Life warning those living in dorms about the freezing weather forecast.
Once leaks were reported and prevented from becoming worse, a remediation team brought heaters that were placed on flooded floors to dry the stagnant water to prevent further damage according to Dillan Thursby, a sophomore who lives on the Marietta campus.
Thursby said that he discovered his dorm had flooded from a GroupMe message.
“I scrolled up to see a video of the hallway flooding, with the fire alarm on. The closest dorm just happened to be my dorm”, Thursby said.
He added that his belongings were not damaged; work was already underway on repairing the room before the deadline to remove personal effects set for Jan. 11. He told The Sentinel that his roommate had some items damaged in the cleanup.
Thursby said he received an email regarding placement in a hotel near campus, despite having never filled out the form, and that he plans to commute the rest of the semester after acknowledging that many students do not have a primary residence near the school and that some do not have a primary residence at all.
According to Gray, some students were placed in vacant dorms that were available due to canceled housing agreements, prior tenants graduating or students transferring after last semester.
As far as preventing a similar situation in the future, Gray said, “We are still in the early stages of assessing how we would handle prolonged freezing temperatures in the future. Since this was an issue with sprinkler systems that respond to fire incidents and not domestic plumbing, we must balance the safety of our residents with plans to avoid fire system failures.”