Students affected by the flooding on the north side of Letts Terrace should be able to move back into their rooms by Friday, according to Housing and Dining Executive Director Chris Moody.
A second backup occurred Monday, but no students were affected, according to Willy Souter, the director of Facilities Management.
Monday's flood affected the Letts mailroom and the Enrollment Communication Center, but these offices have already been cleaned and recarpeted.
The flooding occurred when a sewage backup leaked "black water" into the halls of Letts Terrace North Saturday morning, Moody said. "Black water" is a combination of fecal matter, hygiene products and other waste.
When students flush feminine hygiene products, paper towels and anything other than toilet paper down the toilets, the sewer line can back up and overflow, Souter said.
"The lines are in good shape - there was just the wrong stuff being sent down the sewer lines," Souter said.
Since Saturday evening, the floor's 31 residents have been living in temporary housing in the Letts Sky Lounge and other lounges in Anderson and Centennial halls, according to Letts Hall Resident Director John Quast.
While there are some rooms with available beds scattered around campus, the students were placed in lounges due to the short-lived nature of their stay, Moody said. Many of these rooms are located on North side or Tenley Campus.
"By placing them all into individual rooms for a week where there were spots, then, it would not just affect 31 people, but another 31 people on top of that, so we decided to keep people close to home," Moody said.
The flooding situation has been handled horribly, said Laura Zeugner, a sophomore in the School of International Service.
Zeugner is a resident of Letts Terrace North but is temporarily living in a study lounge in Anderson with four other female students. Although new keys were made for the lounge, the residents could not get the door locked for a day and a half, she said.
Mike Rourke, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business and a resident of Letts Terrace North, was placed in the Sky Lounge with the rest of the male residents, but he has since moved into a friend's dorm room. Although new keys were made for the students in the Sky Lounge, some of them still do not have keys, he said.
"Some of the people living here can't even get in and out if they need to," Rourke said.
Because the students have paid to live in a secure dorm room for the entire semester, the university should reimburse them, Zeugner said.
The Housing and Dining License Agreement states the university is responsible for finding alternative housing for residents in the case of an emergency but does not need to refund residents, Moody said. The university is not liable for damage sustained by residents' personal property, according to the License Agreement.
The university encourages students to purchase renter's insurance to protect their belongings, Moody said.
"Because this was an unfortunate real life occurrence that was not due to negligence ... we will not be able to repair personal property," Moody said.
Some students' personal property was stolen in the confusion of the flood and relocation, Zeugner said.
"We asked them about the security issue, and [John Quast] told us to just take our laptops with us everywhere," she said.
Quast said he has been allowing students to store their valuables in his office.
Once the residents are all moved back into their rooms, Quast said he will discuss each student's experience one-on-one.
If items have been stolen, Housing and Dining will work with Public Safety to investigate the situation, Moody said.
"If we figure out through that process that there was some sort of period of time when a room was unlocked and an item went missing ... then we will look at reimbursement of the student for those items," he said.
Housing and Dining is doing everything it can to accommodate students in every instance, Quast said. The relocated students have been very cooperative and understanding of the situation, he added.
Leah Kreimer, resident director of Centennial Hall and the resident director on-duty during the flood, said she felt the Housing and Dining staff handled the situation to the best of their abilities.
"I think having as many people as we had who could do their best to answer questions was one of the most helpful things," Kreimer said.
As of press time, carpet crews had re-carpeted all nine rooms affected by the flooding, Moody said. The other four rooms on the floor did not get wet.
Students may return to their rooms once carpet crews lay down new carpet in the hallways, Moody said.
Before any new carpets were laid did, an ACM Services Inc. cleaning crew disinfected the baseboards, furniture, walls and other exposed surfaces with a special cleaning agent, IAQ 2000, to kill all microbials, according to an update released by Moody on Monday.
Students need to be more aware of what they flush down residence hall toilets, according to Vice President of Campus Life Gail Hanson.
"We're going to make an extra effort to post signs and provide appropriate receptacles," Hanson said.
The Residence Hall Association will host a "Welcome Back Dinner" for the displaced residents Thursday, vice president of RHA programming Jackie Buente said in an e-mail. Quast, Kreimer and South Campus Area Director Paul Brown will be on hand to answer the residents' questions.
