Clarkson Integrator

Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Jason Holloway Students observe the damage to their lounge on the first floor of Thomas House in Price Hall. A sewer drain clogged around 7:00 p.m. Tuesday evening, forcing residents living on the first floor of the Price Hall dorms to find alternate sleeping arrangements. Campus maintenance cleared the clog and students were allowed to return Wednesday morning.

Last Tuesday night around 7:30 p.m., the bottom floors of all four resident buildings in Price Hall flooded. A sewage drain clogged, causing water to back up into the rooms. Of the four buildings in Price, Thomas Hall was the most severely affected, with about three inches of water in the lounge. All of the rooms on the floor were flooded. In the other residence halls many rooms were affected, but in some cases the flooding was contained to the bathroom.

Campus Safety, Resident Life, and CUSA all contributed to easing the burden on the affected students. Within an hour and a half, Campus Safety had talked to students on all of the affected floors and maintenance had found and removed the clog despite having "a half hour of dead time" for the plumbers to make it back to campus.

As a safety precaution, all first floor residents were required to spend the night outside the dorm. In accordance with the University's emergency action plan, Campus Safety gave the residents the option to sleep in the Barben rooms, providing pillows and blankets. Many displaced students opted to sleep in friends' rooms, while a dozen students slept in Cheel. Jeremy Hermanntt, the Resident Director on duty told a group of students from Thomas, "Thomas is the first priority."

Despite the heavy flooding, maintenance had cleared up the clog and cleaned up the floors enough for residents to return the next morning. CUSA president Kyle Snyder was in Cheel when the first students trickled in from the new dorms, and immediately began making preparations including setting up a video in Cheel Commons, and ordering pizza. Maintenance also cleaned all of the carpets that had been soaked by the flooding.

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