Letts Hall residents displaced after a pipe burst and flooded the floor Saturday morning will not be able to return to their rooms for one week.
A pipe burst at approximately 11 a.m. Saturday, flooding the hall's North terrace floor with water, according to an information sheet for desk receptionists obtained by The Eagle.
Pat Cavanagh, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences who lives on the affected floor, first became aware of the situation when a resident assistant knocked on his door.
"I woke up at around 10:30 from an RA at my door who told me I should take my stuff off the floor if I didn't want anything lost," he said.
The water smelled foul, according to Alejandro Becerril, a senior from Mexico who is at the university through the Abroad @ AU program.
The flooding occurred after "drain water" backed up through the system, according to the information sheet.
The Eagle attempted to contact several people from Housing and Dining Programs for this article. Some were reluctant to comment until business hours tomorrow, while others did not respond to phone calls and e-mails requesting comment.
The floor's eight male residents and a resident assistant are temporarily living in the Letts Sky Lounge on the building's sixth floor. The floor's female residents are temporarily living in Anderson and Centennial halls, including some of Centennial's floor lounges.
Becerril said he did not like his temporary living situation.
"I didn't expect an arrangement like this," he said. "It really is going to be uncomfortable. It's going to mess my schedule up."
Each of the residents living in the Sky Lounge received a duplicate key and will be able to lock the Sky Lounge doors, several of the residents said.
Students from the affected floor had to move out by 11 p.m. Saturday evening. Housing and Dining staff and RAs Saturday helped the residents move belongings, Becerril said.
"The Housing and Dining staff responded quickly and were nice," he said. "They helped us when we needed it."
Melissa Snyder, a freshman in the School of International Service, did not finish moving her belongings from Letts into her temporary housing in Anderson until 5:30 p.m.
"The RAs were very helpful in the process," she said.
Students who were on the floor retrieving their personal belongings experienced negligible risk from being exposed to the water, according to the sheet.
"If a risk existed, student [sic] would not have been allowed to enter the area," the sheet said.
The university is replacing the carpeting in the hallway. It will also replace carpeting in the rooms where water actually entered. The carpets will be steam-cleaned with "anti-microbial agents" in rooms where water did not enter. Additionally, the entire floor will be cleaned with specialized chemical agents, according to the information sheet.
Tony Newman, director of the office of Risk Management, did not return repeated calls for comment.
