<--------- This, dear readers, is the smiling face of a student resident in my building at 11:30PM Monday, November 1st. He, most excitedly, agreed to let me use this fantastic photo of his floor-removal efforts.
Rewind:
Monday night was better than usual. A friend from my graduate school cohort had received free tickets to see Sufjan Stevens in concert and we had planned to go after Monday night class. Last minute she realized a staff meeting that same night and offered the extra ticket to a friend, if I could find one.
Class was better than most Mondays. The discussion was lively and my fellow classmates had many Halloween stories to share. After a few phone calls I wrangled a good friend to experience Sufjan's mind-boggling performance art with me. His interpretive dance, instrument multiplicity and laser graphics left me speechless (if you know me you know how great a challenge that is... )
I got back to my apartment at about 11:15PM. Exhausted as I was I knew staying up to put the finishing touches on my next-day class presentation would be better than waking up early. But first I had to call Discover Card and cancel my card; it was the only casualty of the Halloween Bar Crawl.
When you call a credit card company they are bound to be loquacious, trying to sell you more credit or more services. Spirited, loud knocks vibrated my door in the middle of Discover's sales pitch and I had to hang up on the telemarketer mid-sentence. The hall monitor informed me that second floor was flooding.
I sauntered upstairs rather slowly, despite the students' enthusiasm. College students exaggerate, right?
Wrong.
Water was pouring out of the second floor mens bathroom like a steady stream. Students were barricading their doors with towels and the student above, along with a few others, was trying to scoop water off the ground to dump it into the shower drains.
Call to maintenance proved futile: the number had been disconnected. Campus Patrol answered and said they were on their way. I emphasized the severity of the situation with a Niagara Falls hyperbole.
The pipe that runs from the wall to the base of the toilet had exploded off the wall. Water was shooting out of the pipe like an opened fire hydrant.
Long story, abbreviated, because I love brevity!
Water is shooting out from the wall
Students call Campus Patrol
RAs call Resident Director on-call
Students knock on my door
I call emergency maintenance: no answer
Resident Director on-call calls emergency maintenance: no answer
Water continues to shoot from the wall and flood the second floor lobby
Still no maintenance
Campus Patrol arrives but doesn't know where the water shut off is located
Water begins to flood down the hall ways and through to the first floor
The water is 9 inches deep in the bathroom
Still no maintenance
CLUTCH DECISION: I call the fire department
What do they say to do?
PULL THE FIRE ALARM!
Get all the students out of the building
Fire department arrives
(Somehow, someone, still not sure who... finally turns off the water supply)
Fire department uses reverse hoses to remove water
Fire department calls Utah Disaster clean-up
Students are displaced, hanging out in Shaw at 1AM
Try to find students with water-damaged rooms places to stay
Take 6 students to the Homestead suites
Homestead suites are closed
Find rooms on campus for 4 students
Remaining 2 students agree to camp out on MY floor :)
Disaster clean-up finally arrives
Students are let back into the Residence Hall
RAs take wet towels and blankets to athletic facilities to clean
Disaster clean-up uses their $30,000 vacuum to remove remaining water
HUGE fans are set up to dry everything out
Fans are super loud
3:30AM Disaster clean-up leaves
Finally I get to go home to my dry, quiet... oh, and student filled apartment to sleep.
And guess who, despite a plea to her professor, still had to present in class just 12 hours after going go bed? This girl. And, I might add, I rocked it. :)
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That is certainly exciting!
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