On Oct. 28, a flooding incident at Riepe College House damaged seven rooms and displaced three students.
In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn Facilities and Real Estate Services explained that the incident was caused by a broken hot water line in the Cleeman building. Penn Facilities estimates to complete the repair and clean up process in approximately two to three weeks.
“Penn Facilities responded immediately to stop the leak, fix the pipe, and begin cleanup,” FRES Director of Operations and Maintenance Faramarz Vakili wrote to the DP. “Our remediation contractor arrived within an hour to remove water and start drying the area.”
College first year Kiki Choi, who is also a DP staffer, is one of the three students displaced by the flooding incident. The leaking pipeline first began to affect Choi’s room over the weekend. When Choi noticed, she contacted maintenance services on Sunday.
According to Choi, a maintenance staff member was sent to her room on Monday evening in response to her call.
”[The staff] looked at [the leak] with a flashlight and said, ‘I don’t know what to do, I can’t really do anything for you right now,’ and left,” Choi recalled.
The following morning, the leak in Choi’s room turned into a flood.
”Water came pouring down, [and] it was hot too,” Choi said. “I went into flight mode, grabbed my backpack and bolted out of the door.”
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The flood in Choi’s room expanded to impact the room downstairs, where College first year Andre Geffen resides.
”I think they did a good job responding to the [incident], all the staff have been helpful,” Geffen said. “But I think this was preventable. My understanding is that they had the opportunity to fix [the leaking] on Sunday and Monday, and they simply did not.”
On Tuesday, Geffen was placed in temporary housing. Recalling the extent of the damage, Geffen described that “there were six leak spots” in the ceiling of his room as a result of the flood.
“All my clothes got wet, one of my suits got soaked through, and a piece of wet ceiling fell on my laptop,” Geffen said.
In addition to the student rooms, one bathroom and two hallways in the Cleeman building in Riepe were also impacted by the flood.
