All of the on-campus dorms sustained power outages and some dorms had minor damages this past weekend because of Hurricane Rita.
An East Laville Hall stairwell in the basement flooded, Kirby-Smith and Miller Halls leaked from horizontal rain and a campus-wide loss of power affected all students living in dorms.
Peter Davidson, energy services director in Facility Services, said the campus lost power for two hours and 44 minutes early Saturday morning.
He said the on-campus blackout was caused after Entergy lost power. Generators on campus were used to compensate but then tripped a breaker, causing a loss of all power on campus.
Davidson said it took a few hours to restore power because of the complexity of resetting the power supply.
Mimi Lavalle, communications director for Residential Life, said a Residential Life maintenance crew responded quickly to leaks in Kirby-Smith and Miller Halls and said it caused little damage to the dorms and students’ property.
Joe Hitt, assistant director of facilities for Residential Life, said East Laville flooded because of a clogged drain outside the door leading to the basement.
Hitt said there was no damage to the basement stairwell that flooded.
Missy Korduner, residential life coordinator for the Laville Halls, said the flooding was discovered while the staff was making rounds to inspect the building while it did not have power.
Korduner said the water rose between the first and second step – one to two feet of water.
Korduner said the water did not reach the rooms at the top of the stairs and said the stairwell is not commonly used because it does not lead to an exit door.
Lavalle said the water was pumped out by a 20-person emergency response team that had remained on campus in the event of any problems in the dorms.
Contact Ginger Gibson at [email protected]