Residents of Dobson Hall woke up to alarms which ushered them out of their rooms around 8:00 a.m. on Feb. 27. A heating pipe burst on the second-floor west wing, spreading water over most of the wing’s floor and falling into the wing directly below and into the basement. 

Nicole Faeth, a resident of 2-west, explained that “[the student] opened their window to make it cooler in their room, but then realized it was too cold and shut it pretty quickly. Then, sometime later, water started shooting out of the top right corner of the heater. I think there was a ten-minute gap between when the incident occurred and when the alarm went off. It was around 8:10-20-ish that I heard the alarm.” 

The Dobson Hall maintenance crew was called into the situation quickly and set up fans to dry the carpet. By the night of Feb. 27, the hallway was mostly dry. 

Most rooms on 2-west were affected to varying degrees. Isabelle Emerson, an RA who was displaced in the midst of the chaos, said, “My duty was to get in contact with the police and tell them where and what the problem was … My fellow staff helped residents out of the building.”

Emerson added, “We didn’t know what to do, because Dobson didn’t have an RD in the building yet.” Residents banded together to put valuables and technology in safe spots. 

James Levan, a student who lives in an unaffected part of Dobson Hall, commented, “The room with the pipe burst had been flooded completely, damaging many of the personal belongings of the resident. The flooding seeped into the rooms directly next door, across, as well as in the hallway for an extended four or five rooms in length. Residents directly downstairs were also impacted, water had seeped through to the lower level causing flooding in the rooms directly underneath the pipe’s origin. The RA staff, as well as neighboring residents, helped those affected by trying to get as much water out of the rooms and hallways.” 

Damages were surveyed and documented after the four-hour-long ordeal. Ultimately, five residents were displaced and moved to other rooms until their rooms are repaired.