Sulz Pipe Bursts, Quad Evacuated

A series of pipe and heater explosions shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday morning, flooded several floors of Sulzberger Hall at Barnard College, displacing residents of the third, fourth, and fifth floors for the night.

Although all residents of the Quad were initially evacuated amid fears of widespread damage, Barnard housing officials reported within an hour that the flooding was limited to the fifth floor of Sulzberger and below.

In addition to flooding in the common areas of each floor, there was also water in the stairwells and elevators. According to resident accounts, the explosions began in the sinks in the kitchens of each floor and spread down the hallway, accompanied by steam leaking from radiators.

“[My roommate] Georgia came running into my room and said there was black water and steam in the lounge,” said Tressa Brooks, BC ’11 and resident of the third floor of Sulzberger. “It was coming closer and closer to our room because it’s the first one on the floor next to the lounge. So we started stuffing towels under the door, but it wasn’t working anymore.”

“Near the TV lounge, there was just a small pool of water and there was fog in the windows,” said Jill Ross, BC ’11 and a resident of the fifth floor of Sulzberger. “I saw this brown water beneath my feet [in the stairwell] and thought, ‘I really hope this wasn’t a sewer.’”

At Lefrak Gymnasium, housing officials slowly allowed sleepy unaffected residents of the Quad to return to their rooms, although they didn’t allow residents of the three impacted floors to return.

“We do not want to take the risk of anyone getting shocked or electrocuted because their floors are sopping wet,” said Annie Aversa, director of residential life.

Aversa added that facilities officials went from room to room on the flooded floors to move laptops and other electronics to high ground. In addition, since the fire alarms were out of order following the flooding, security patrols spent the night monitoring the Quad for emergencies.

Students said that they thought Barnard Residential Life handled the situation well, although they were upset to be woken up by a fire alarm.

“It’s a really big inconvenience, but I think that the women handled it very well,” said Sarah Husk, BC ’11. “I think people are getting tired of being here, but morale seems to be okay.”

Many Barnard students compared the experience of being evacuated down stairwells amid flooding, to the Titanic.

Maggie Astor, Libby Brittain, Lara Chelak, Sarah Cohler, Melanie Jones, Alix Pianin, and Melissa Repko contributed to this article.
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