Nichole Maisto
Christmas break usually means no stress for students. However, the turn of events went for the worst when five suites recovered emails that there had been a pipe burst in the Living Center in early January, causing flooding.
Jess Clements, a junior, and member of the women’s gymnastics team was on campus during intersession when the flooding first occurred. Clements had been the only person in her suite over intercession when the flood began in her room.
“I was woken up at 3:30 am when FACs ran into my room with the huge machine that cleans all the water up. I had no idea what was happening, I was woken up by the noise and when I turned my light on to see what was going on I realized my room was filled with about an inch of water,” Clements said.
At this point, the question that was raised was how are we going to fix this, who is, and when? It was a hard time for Clements being the only resident present through this.
“It was super frustrating at the time because I was the only one here and that’s not the most ideal situation. However, overall res life with very quick with responding to issues and providing accommodations until the room was fixed,” Clements said.
The stress did not only come back for Clements, but residents at home as well who were unable to see the damage.
Laura Townsend, another junior, was one of these students. Items such as televisions, bedding, furniture and more were damaged by the water in her suite, which also included the rooms of her suitemates as well.
The question pressing the residents mind at this point was how were they going to fix this and their possessions that were damaged?
“I was told we are able to make a claim through our renters or homeowners insurance individually in order to repair certain things. For the items of ours such as my bedding and carpet, the school was very generous as they brought them to the dry cleaners and I had them back in my possession before the second semester started,” Townsend said.
Thankfully, nothing of Townsend’s or Clement’s possessions were damaged permanently and moving forward, not only the school but the Living Centers are working to prevent this from happening again.
“Nothing of mine was damaged, our carpets were dry cleaned and then returned. The kitchen was completed ripped apart and redone by the time classes started back up,” Clements said.
The pipes were fixed immediately following the burst, and hot water was back before the residents returned to school as well.