Pipe bursts in Quad basement

Pools of muddy water flooded the Speakman basement after a rainy Tuesday evening. Freshmen who live in the basement level of the Quadrangle's Speakman dormitory were unamused Tuesday night when their halls flooded -- again. Flooding after rain is a common problem in the depths of the Quad, but at approximately 8 p.m. Tuesday, water began to spread into the dormitory from a broken water line on Hamilton Walk. "The bathroom was covered with a layer of dirty, brown sludge," said Jerry Cudzil, a Speakman resident advisor and College senior. Although students feared the water was sewage, Associate Director of Operations in Residential Maintenance Al Zuino said "the water was just dirty from filtering through the ground." Besides covering the bathroom with an inch-thick layer of muddy water, the flood also affected three dorm rooms. "It's like the ten plagues of Passover -- that's what it is," Wharton freshman Ami Fisher said. Some residents used creativity to protect their belongings. "We used newspaper, toilet paper and towels to build a dam," Wharton freshman Greg Friedman said. "It was really cool -- it stretched across the whole floor and protected our room like a fortress." Speakman residents said they tried to report the flooding to the Department of Housing and Residence Life at approximately 8 p.m., but received a busy signal. Cudzil said officials told him at 11:30 p.m. that no work would be done until the morning because all maintenance workers had gone home for the evening. But workers did arrive shortly after 1 a.m., and, according to Zuino, the problem was "stabilized by 2 a.m." Both University and city officials continued work yesterday morning, restoring the water supply to the bathrooms by 8:30 a.m. by re-routing water from other parts of the Quadrangle. City officials reported that repairs to the water pipe were completed by 11:30 a.m. Cudzil said he felt badly for the freshmen living on his hall, and believed the experience was more than anyone deserved. "People shouldn't have lived here this year," he said. "In fact, next year, I don't think there will be anyone here." Earlier in the year, residents of Speakman's basement were offered the option to move out due to the repeated flooding after rain and mice problems. But the students "opted to stick it out together," Zuino said. Following the flooding Monday night, some students said they were annoyed that University officials tried to avoid blame by pointing out that the students had chosen to stay in the dorm.