March 29, 2024

Intense rain leads to flooding in Saylor-Ackermann

Columbus was struck with a gnarly storm on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 5, and after hours of rainfall, the basement of residence hall Saylor-Ackermann (SA) ended up with inches of water on the floor.

In this emergency, facilities and housekeeping staffs were called in on Sunday evening and worked through Monday morning to mitigate the rain water at SA,” Paul Matthews, Director of Facilities Management, said.

After four inches of rain on two separate occasions Sunday evening, six resident rooms were affected.

Matthews said that the maintenance tunnel that connected the Saylor-Ackermann ground level could not keep up with and contain the groundwater.

Another pump location closer to the SA north entrance to the tunnel and construction of a higher curb at the SA tunnel entrance is being priced to alleviate this type of water backup into the tunnel near SA,” Matthews said.

Ellen Andrews, junior, was personally affected by the flooding. “This is incredibly frustrating,” she said.

Andrews said that upon returning to her dorm after dinner on Sunday night, she noticed a puddle near the window and immediately called the area director on duty and was told that facilities would be over soon.

“My roommate’s bed was soaked as well as some of her items under her bed,” Andrews said. “We moved all the furniture away from the window and waited for facilities. We waited over two hours for them to walk in the room, look at it for 30 seconds and then tell us it can’t be fixed until tomorrow.”

Other rooms in the building had even more flooding than Andrews’s.

“I know that we had very minimal water compared to others,” Andrews said. “Those in the ASA themed housing at the other end of the hallway I heard had up to 1.5 inches in their rooms of standing water.”

Over a week later, the issue still was not fixed. 

“We were told that someone would come back and fix it,” Andrews said. “We had to put in a work order a day or two ago, and we are still waiting on someone to come look at it.”

She said that she is concerned for any incoming rain that may come in before the window is finally fixed.

Author

  • Sydney Deibert

    Sydney was the managing editor at the Chimes for her junior and senior years after working as a staff reporter during her first year at Capital in 2017. Sydney graduated in 2020 with a degree in professional writing and journalism. Some of her favorite things are cold brew, books about dragons, horror films, and her cat, Sterling.

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