Students Evacuated In Cabot House Flood

A pipe burst in Cabot House early Friday morning, flooding rooms from the fourth floor downward and forcing students from their suites.

Effects of the flood ranged from property damage to rescheduled LSATs. Some evacuees spent the morning following the deluge camping out in friends’ rooms, while others made do with sleeping on tabletops in the dining hall.

The leak began from a pipe leading to the toilet in room C-43, letting loose a torrent of water that collapsed some of the House’s ceilings. Maintenance received notification of the problem at 3:43 a.m. on Friday and immediately dispatched staff members, who evacuated students thought to be at risk into the Cabot dining hall.

According to Gene Ketelhohn, the Cabot House building manager, four ceilings must be replaced and the resulting dust and debris cleared. Maintenance quickly managed to clean up most of the water and wreckage, but the House has not yet returned to normalcy.

Lindsay E. Crouse ’06, who lived in room B-31, the hardest-hit room, said the dripping water woke her up around 3:30 a.m. She said she initially assumed that the leak had been caused by a storm, but soon realized that this did not seem reasonable, given the amount of water.

Shortly after she alerted her suitemates and moved her laptop and senior thesis research away, the ceiling of her room collapsed around her, accompanied by a deafening roar and pouring water.

“You had no idea what was going on,” she said. “It happened so quickly, within four minutes!”

Crouse and her friends scrambled to salvage what they could from her room. They received electrical shocks trying to unplug appliances. But, by the time three inches of water had accumulated on the ground, they were forced to vacate for safety concerns.

She said she was in hysterics as her world literally collapsed around her ears.

“Papers, checks, receipts, things you don’t even think about but are actually really important” were lost, she reported.

Conditions in the wake of the flood have been anything but ideal—even for Cabot residents with “inhabitable” rooms.

Elizabeth B. Wood ’06 said that fans and dehumidifiers are noisy, so falling asleep is very difficult. Aditya H. Sanghvi ’06, who lives in a single bedroom directly under the burst pipe, said his room has been sealed off, even though he has been assured that he can return to it. His suitemate, Nilam R. Shah ’06, described their rooms as unlivable because of the amount of dust and debris in the air.

The unexpected flood forced many to change their weekend plans drastically. Senior parties scheduled to be hosted in the affected rooms were delayed or relocated, and some students even had to reschedule their LSATs.

Personal property was destroyed and some will be unable to return to their rooms for the next two weeks. Many will have to rely instead on the hospitality of friends, although the College has been able to provide lodging for some.

Even though Crouse lost almost all of her personal property, she remained optimistic. She expressed gratitude that nobody else had to suffer what she did and that her entire summer of research in South Africa was preserved on her laptop and in the papers she rescued from the water. Still, she said, she hopes the University will offer some degree of reimbursement.

“All I want now is a little help from Harvard to sort things out,” she said, explaining that she had received no definitive answer about financial support.

She and other residents expressed incredulity at the lack of emergency protocol in the case of such an accident. They reported that friends and resident tutors had been helpful, but that nobody seemed to have concrete answers.

Still, Cabot House residents said they are determined not to let the flood ruin this year. Others on campus have opened their homes to those in need.

“If anyone needs a place to sleep we’ve got room for about four or so,” Hilary S. Thrasher ’06 wrote on Cabot-Open.

“We’re trying to keep everything going,” explained Christine A. Capone ’06.