Flooding in Residence Halls
A pipe burst in Allen Chapman Hall due to abnormally cold weather on January 9, 2010. (www.okwu.edu)
by Carrie Roberts
OKWUeagle.com Staff Writer
It began with a pipe bursting. It ended in a few rooms being redone.
Record-setting low temperatures in January took their toll on the pipes of two residence halls this year. The normal average temperature in January is 30 degrees Farenheit, this year the daily temperatures averaged about 10 degrees lower than normal.
A few students were in the lobby of a women’s residence hall, Phillippe, at Oklahoma Wesleyan University when the pipe burst. In the freezing weather the pipes had frozen and the resulting pressure split the pipe.One of the students, Kyle Israel, sophomore, experienced the ordeal first hand.
“I heard the noise first, it sounded like a very loud shower turning on – and that’s pretty much what it was, a big shower,” Israel said.
He said that he went outside to see if someone had turned on the sprinklers. Once outside, he realized that the “sprinkler” was coming from inside the building.
“When we got outside it looked like a huge water fall coming off of the roof!” Israel said.
The surge of water damaged two residence hall rooms in south Phillippe.
Allie Schmitz, freshman, had to relocate after her room landed in the path of the floodwaters.
Buildings and Grounds was on the scene in record time to assess the problem, but by the time the water had been shut off, Schmitz’ first-floor room had one inch of standing water.
“The water was coming in through the lights, the vents, and even the walls,” Schmitz said.
One inch of standing water was an improvement over the water levels in Chapman Hall a week earlier.
Allan Chapman Hall, housing 40 men on-campus, was also flooded due to a pipe burst. Due to the quick actions of Murray Shaw, junior, Kornelius Donnell, freshman, and De’Antre Harlan, freshman, who heard the flooding begin, most of the resident’s belongings escaped water damages.
Even so, there were several inches of water collected on the first floor of Chapman Hall and two rooms were unusable while repairs were made, according to JJ Veale, Director of Residential Life.
While only two women had to move rooms because of the water damage, in Chapman Hall four men were moved while repairs took place.
Sophomore Caleb Harms was affected by this incident. His suitemate, Donovan White’s room was flooded. During the repairs White moved into Harms’ room.
Harms kept a positive attitude about the inconvenience of the situation.
“Donovan and I took turns on the uncomfortable couch and my bed for three weeks!” Harms said.
According to Mark Spencer, owner of Spencer Management, Inc. which operated the OKWU Buildings and Grounds, pipes will occasionally burst in low temperatures. All repairs have been completed and residents are back in their rooms.
