For the second time this semester, a water main break on campus has affected students in South Campus residence halls.
A water main break caused Mack Hall to lose water Saturday at about 6:45 p.m., said Dave Isaacs, Student Life spokesman, in an email. The area around the break at the intersection of 12th and Neil avenues was flooded, with the water and mud extending down Neil Avenue to the Mirror Lake area.
An 8-inch line broke, and a contractor was able to fix the line and get the water back on in Mack just before noon Sunday, Isaacs said.
No cause had been determined for the break by 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Oxley and Pomerene halls were also affected by the break but saw minimal impact since it occurred over the weekend, Isaacs said.
A water main break on Sept. 16 caused Park-Stradley Hall, Ohio Union and Baker halls East and West to be evacuated, displacing about 2,000 students from their rooms. Ohio Union and Baker East and West were reopened the following morning, but 1,200 Park-Stradley residents weren’t permitted back into their rooms until Sept. 19, three days after the break forced them out.
Some Mack Hall residents were afraid that they too would need to evacuate Saturday.
“Everyone was running around like, ‘I hope we don’t get evacuated,'” said Rachel Fladung, a first-year in animal sciences.
Others weren’t even aware of the problem until later.
“I really wasn’t (worried about getting evacuated). I didn’t even know what was going on until I turned on the shower and it wasn’t working, so I didn’t really think anything of it,” said Jared Vanderpohl, a second-year in business.
Some Mack residents were not significantly affected by the break.
“We were all pretty much in the dorm and I was walking back to Mack and I saw that a water line had bust,” Fladung said. “There was water everywhere. It was muddy. (Workers) were trying to put gravel down, and then I came in and everyone was like, ‘Oh, there’s no water.’ Went to go turn the sink on, no water.”
However, Fladung said she didn’t need to use the water while it was out.
“I had taken a shower earlier at like 5, so I didn’t have an issue with that, but I know a lot of other people did because they all wait till late at night,” Fladung added.
Other residents said that they were informed that water wasn’t available via Facebook and signs on the bathroom doors.
“I don’t think we got an email, I think they said something on Facebook. Whoever was working the desk at the time posted it on Facebook, and then there were signs on all the bathroom doors saying don’t use them,” Vanderpohl said. “(The signs) just said there was a water main leak and that the water was shut off so we couldn’t use it, so they just told us to go to Canfield (Hall) and use their bathrooms.”