Despite the valiant efforts of residents, a flood in the ground level of upper Keeney Quad caused some property damage, water-logged rugs and clogged drains at around 8 p.m. Sunday night.
Dead leaves clogged a drain at the base of an outer stairwell at the corner of Brown and Charlesfield Streets during the heavy rain, residents said. Rainwater flowed down the stairs, accumulated and ran under the outer door, creating a two-inch-deep body of water. The water flowed as far as 20 feet along the Bronson House hallways and into a bathroom, a converted lounge and several doubles.
"It was just a melee," said Joe Carpenter '08. Students took a mattress from storage to try to block the flood, while others used trash cans as buckets and tried to scoop water into showers and sinks and into drains in the stairwell, which soon clogged, he said.
"I short-circuited my vacuum trying to suck it up," said Steve Greene '08.
Unit 1 Resident Counselor Andrew Shield '07 wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that he and two other residents unclogged the outside drain themselves after waiting half an hour for facilities management to respond.
After about an hour, Facilities Management was able to send a team to use a "high-powered vacuum" to drain the hallway, said Albert Ghitis '08. Ghitis and roommate Greene tried to barricade their door, but water still penetrated and soaked their rug, which "shriveled up and died," he said.
The water was "really close" to electronics and wires in his room, Ghitis said. "We would have all been screwed."
In the converted lounge, the closest room to the door, residents unplugged all electronics and tried to lift everything possible out of the way of the inch-deep water, Shield wrote. Residents said damage in that sophomore triple was the worst.
"It's contained by now," said a woman who answered the phone at Facilities Management. "There shouldn't be any further flooding."
"It was fun, kind of," admitted Elena Gonzalez '08.
Some residents from higher, dryer floors in the dorm wore bathing suits to watch the event and go "surfing," hallway residents said.
"They were like, 'We're going surfing in your misery,'" said Brietta Tsang '08.
