Author: Drew Jaffe
As students flooded lower campus for Occidental’s annual Toga dance, a ruptured pipe inundated upper campus with water. The flooding left multiple residence halls without water and damaged the vivarium of the Bioscience building.
According to an email from Director of Communications Jim Tranquada, the flooding began around 12 a.m. Sunday when a 6-inch steel water main running between the Braun and Stewart-Cleland (Stewie) residence halls was ruptured. Campus Safety reports show that there were reports of leaking water at 11:24 a.m. on Saturday but Tranquada said these were from a separate line used for irrigation.
While data is not yet available for the amount of water lost, runoff from the ruptured pipe spread over a wide stretch of campus.
“There was like a waterfall down the Pauley stairs and the water went all the way down past the library,” psychology major Chrissy Hart (junior) said.
Kinesiology major Paige Sapienza (sophomore) saw the water reach well past Berkus Hall.
The scope of the flood inconvenienced many students returning to upper-campus residence halls from Toga. Hart had to take an alternative route to return to Braun, where she is a Resident Advisor.
“We had to walk in the dirt then jump over giant puddles,” Hart said.
Other students braved the rushing water to avoid taking a longer route to their rooms but suffered wet clothes and shoes as a result.
Facilities managed to stop the flooding early Sunday morning, but had to shut off water to the buildings that rely on the effected pipe. According to Tranquada, this included the Hameetman Science Center, Fowler Hall, the Norris Chemistry building, and the Bioscience building as well as the Wylie, Bell-Young, Eileen-Norris (Norris), Braun, Pauley and Stewie residence halls. Water service resumed at 4:30 p.m. the same day after workers repaired the pipe. During this time, exasperated students resorted to various tactics to cope with the absence of water.
“Some of my quad-mates and I had early mornings, so five of us had to brush our teeth and wash our faces using one water bottle,” Norris resident Amanda Morales (sophomore) said.
To use the bathroom, Morales, her quad-mates and other residents of the affected halls had to walk to Berkus Hall, which still had water.
The only damage reported was to the vivarium in the Bioscience building, although costs of this damage have not yet been ascertained said Tranquada. The flooding in the vivarium impacted students like undeclared major Rebs Lim (sophomore), who has class in the building.
“I was pretty taken-aback…My class had to be taken out and into Mosher because of the flood,” Lim said.
The flood also happened simultaneously with the Conservation Challenge, a competition between residence halls to see which hall can reduce its water and energy consumption the most. To avoid warped results, Conservation Challenge organizer and biology major Grace Bender (junior) said that measurements from Saturday Oct. 26 and Sunday Oct. 27 will not be included in the final tally.
Despite the damage and inconveniences brought by the flooding, Bell-Young Hall Resident Advisor Robert George (sophomore) maintained a positive and humbled outlook on the situation.
“It wasn’t that bad. Residents informed but didn’t complain. Stuff happens, considering the water situation in the rest of the world, it makes me grateful for the water supply we normally have,” George said via email.
According to Tranquada, water has been restored to all buildings on campus and repairs to the damaged Bioscience building will begin this week.
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