Sadie Jones
A&E Editor
At 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 7, Cameron University Village residents of building A and B rose before the sun to the blaring of fire alarms.
Apartment rooms throughout building A were filled with standing water due to a burst pipe. Every student in building A and B evacuated soon after the housing staff realized the problem.
Vice President of Student Services Jennifer Holland said a sprinkler pipe caused the flooding.
“In room 304, the very northwest corner of A, a sprinkler pipe froze and burst,” Holland said. “A sprinkler pipe is full pressure water because it has to have enough water to sprinkle the entire building in the case of a fire.”
The fire alarms continued to sound for over an hour while the housing staff tried their best to keep residents and their belongings safe.
Holland said the water that flowed from the third floor ceiling seeped down to the second floor and eventually the first floor — flooding all three floors, impacting 39 students and causing severe water damage in the process, primarily to the west side of the building.
Although building A was the only building that flooded, residents in building B evacuated for safety precautions as well.
“During the early morning hours — we weren’t sure what the impact of building B was going to be,” Holland said. “Because the buildings are connected, they share a lot of the same systems, so our first reaction was that the water needed to be turned off. Initially we feared both buildings were going to be impacted, but thankfully that didn’t happen.”
Students who had to evacuate were moved to different rooms within the Village — some even moved to Shepler. Holland said Housing had to move students wherever there was open space. Not every resident was able to stay with his or her original roommates, but the housing staff tried their best to keep residents together.
“In some situations, residents are happier where they ended up moving — but some are not,” Holland said. “Honestly, we did the best that we could do in the middle of an emergency. Since the incident, we have contacted those who moved to Shepler — notifying them of space now available in the Village — all but six students have relocated back over to the apartments, and those students chose to stay in Shepler.”
Holland said changes in residents’ housing payments are currently being evaluated and worked out with each individual student, based on where they are living now.
The Cameron Village pipes have broken before, but unfortunately, the burst on Feb. 7 is recorded as the most damaging. Although the incident was a nuisance to students as well as the housing staff, Holland counts the emergency as a learning experience for everyone.
“I think every homeowner would tell you that sometimes your pipes freeze,” Holland said. “It happens when you’re a home-owner, and it happens when you run an apartment complex.
“We service our systems all the time; we check all of those things. But we have had an unseasonably cold winter, and now we have new ideas for what we can do, as far as additional insulation that may be needed in the attic as well as the need to look into how the pipes are being treated.”
Holland said she was pleased with the rapid response from the crews who came to help during the early morning hours and late into the day on Saturday.
“Getting the water off is the primary thing because it minimizes damage,” Holland said. “The physical facility crews responded very quickly — they have taken ownership and leadership of the project which is so much appreciated because it’s kind of beyond the scope of what we know in Housing.”
Preparations for renovations to building A are now under way. Holland said Housing is taking the time to accept bids before they begin the process. The majority of the repairs are needed on the west side of the building, and Holland said the renovations consist of clean up.
“Sheetrock, ceiling tiles, technology equipment, fire suppression system and security cameras will have to be replaced,” Holland said.
There is not a set date for when the renovations will be complete, but building A residents who moved to other rooms will not be expected to move back into their former homes. But, Holland said, it is an option for them if they choose to do so.