LLC flooded
Water poured down from the ceiling in Tyler Christianson’s apartment around 6:40 a.m. Thursday. His room in the Living Learning Community on campus was filling with water.
“I was still asleep,” said Christianson, a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering. “There was a big crashing sound. I thought, ‘Wow my alarm sounds really loud.'”
Christianson said at first he thought it was just a broken sprinkler.
“After I saw water coming out of the light fixtures, I realized what was actually happening.”
Executive director of housing Steve Jensen said the flooding was called by a broken pipe.
“Water ran for 20 minutes, and it’s a big pipe,” Christianson said. “It was a lot of water.”
Jensen said the USU Police Department responded first, followed by the on-call maintenance crew.
“We take safety very seriously on campus,” Jensen said. “We do our best to take care of our residents.”
The main flooding happened in Christianson’s bedroom, but Jensen said the whole suite on the first floor of building C was affected.
“We put some towels up so it wouldn’t go into our room,” said sophomore Austin Spence, who lives in the affected suite. He said the damage wasn’t as bad in his room.
Christianson said they evacuated the building and and took all of his belongings in the study area.
“I ended up going to physics recitation in just sweats and a coat,” Christianson said.
The seven residents in the suite were moved to the University Inn while the apartment is being repaired. All of the students returned to their rooms Monday except Christianson, who will move back in at the end of the week.
Christianson said they completely ripped out the ceiling in his room. It is also getting new carpet and paint.
Jensen said the repair costs are covered by the university’s insurance. The pipe cracked when the frozen water expanded. When it thawed, the water came gushing through the pipe, Jensen said.
“It was an error in the construction,” Jensen said. “Because it was up above the insulation in the attic, it froze.”
Jensen said this is the coldest winter Logan has had since the buildings were constructed, and that’s why the problem hasn’t surfaced before. He said the sprinkler line had to be rerouted through all of the buildings of the LLC.
“It was a pretty involved process, but it should never happen again,” Jensen said.
– tmera.bradley@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tmerabradley