By Katharine Wilson

Photos from the 3rd floor of Cumberland Hall Saturday night. Photos by Elijah Thompson.

Cumberland Hall flooded for the second time this school year on Saturday, leaving residents with soaked belongings and questions regarding how the university will prevent future floods.

Saturday’s flood started when a pipe burst on the northside of the fourth floor of the building. Water went under doors and down the staircase. With the water rushing down the stairs and leaking through the ceiling, residents on the third floor experienced flooding for the second time in the 2021 – 2022 school year. The Department of Resident Life says that the flood impacted 13 student rooms from the fourth to second floor and one office on the first floor.

Kian Mostoufi, a freshman biology major, lives in the room where the pipe burst. He was at the gym when his roommate called him and said that their room had flooded. 

“I thought it was a prank until I got back to my floor and saw water on the floor and a crowd of people gathered outside my door,” said Mostoufi. Their room flooded because the heater system pipe on his wall burst, according to Mostoufi. 

“A leak in a pipe that carries water to the heating convectors in the room,” caused this recent flood said Tracy Kiras, the Associate Director for Communications and Marketing for the Department of Resident Life.

According to students, water was hot and black when it first came out. Some reported that the stairwell felt humid because of the water. 

Students brought bathroom trash cans from around the building to collect water under the pipe until it was stopped. Residents of the affected floors helped one another move belongings out of flooded rooms and into lounges. 

“Books were damaged, electrical cords, bed sheets, papers, and more. All in all, the residents were very helpful in getting the rooms cleared and moving things around,” said freshman business management major Elijah Thompson. Thompson is a Community Assistant in the building who helped fellow students get doors unlocked and move belongings out of flooded rooms. 

Mostoufi said he spent the night on an air mattress in his friend’s dorm. He was reimbursed for laundry expenses, but that is all the information he has received at this time.

“I was not fully informed to the extent that I would have liked to be,” he said, explaining that he does not know the timeline for repairs. He also does not know what was in the water or if there is any potential for mold growth. 

“Our Resident Life and Residential Facilities teams responded quickly to both incidents to turn off the water, begin cleaning and restoration work, and offer assistance and support to students who were impacted by this incident,” said Kiras.

The first flood occurred on Oct. 15 and was caused by a sprinkler in a dorm room which was broken by a student placing a clothing hanger on the sprinkler head, according to the Department of Resident Life. Water dripped down through the ceiling to the second floor and the first floor College Park Scholars offices. Rooms on the third floor experienced around two inches of flooding, damaging belongings left on the floor. Laundry expenses were paid, and affected residents were offered the opportunity to stay at a hotel. 

Sneha Patel, a freshman computer science major, lives next to the dorm where the sprinkler was set off. She evacuated the building when the fire alarm went off, and her resident assistant messaged her that a sprinkler had gone off on her floor. When Patel returned to her dorm, there was water in the hallway and under her door. “I had to get some stuff replaced after the fact since some of my electronics were damaged,” said Patel. 

Workers used vacuums to soak up water and put dehumidifiers out to try to prevent mold growth on the floor. 

The Resident Hall Association (RHA) released a statement on Instagram on Sunday,  saying “we are acutely aware of the effect that events like this have on students.” They encouraged residents to reach out to the RHA president Scott Cronin with further concerns. 

“I’m disappointed in Reslife and the University for not already implementing any flooding precautions and not offering any clear support at all,” said Thompson.