On Feb. 15 a water pipe burst in a common area of the fourth floor of Methodist Hall causing flooding and temporary evacuations.
The office of student affairs emailed parents and families about the situation the next day at 11:30 a.m. The email said a water pipe in the Methodist Hall fire suppression system burst at approximately 10:30 p.m. in a common area on the building’s fourth floor. University facilities, housing and police departments responded immediately.
Because the pipe was part of the fire suppression system, the Oklahoma City Fire Department responded and students were temporarily evacuated from Methodist Hall while temperatures were below zero.
The email said the flood affected about three dozen dorms.
“A substantial amount of water flooded from the burst pipe, affecting approximately three dozen residence hall rooms and several common areas. Remediation crews were called in immediately, and have been working overnight and through the day to remove water from the building. Their work was temporarily delayed this morning by a rolling power outage that impacted the OCU campus, but their efforts continue at this time,” the email read.
Most of the building’s residents have been allowed to return to their rooms, and water and heat remains operational in the building.
Zachary Prall, acting senior, said he and his friends ignored the fire alarm at first because it had been ringing often due to low temperatures.
“I was doing homework, ya know, trying to be a good student, and the fire alarm went off and we ignored it because the school sent out an email that the fire alarms would be going off just because of the cold weather,” he said. “Then we start hearing people running down the halls and screaming ‘get out, get out, this is serious this time.’”
Prall said he lives on the fourth floor near where the pipe burst.
“I was on the second floor at the time but I went to the fourth floor, where I live, and as I opened the door to the stairs, water poured down to my feet and I looked up and I saw the ceiling was falling down and water was pouring everywhere,” he said.
Prall said the pipe burst in the breezeway but it spread all the way down the fourth floor hall, and when he got to the first floor, he saw water continuing to flow through the walls.
Prall said the resident assistants did a good job of getting people out of the building and being communicative, but he was frustrated he didn’t receive any communication from the university.
“My biggest thing is there’s been no statement from OCU, no Blue Alert,” he said. “We sign up for Blue Alerts to be alerted of these things, yet it’s almost 11 a.m. the next day and it hasn’t been addressed and we still have Zoom classes. It’s frustrating there’s been no communications.”
Caroline Pillow, music theater freshman, said she was able to go back to her dorm after evacuating but was not able to stay there overnight.
“We got out and all gathered in front of the building and everyone was sharing stories and videos of the fourth floor. All of the RAs tried to gather everyone to the university center but it was closed, so my group of friends tried to take people to Wanda Bass because we knew it’d be open, so we went there and tried to heat up,” she said. “We got our bearings and then we heard it was okay for us to go back to Methodist, but only to get our stuff. We didn’t hear from the university or an RA, it was just students texting other students.”
Pillow said she was thankful she had a friend with an extra bed in their dorm to stay with.
“I was able to stay with a friend, so I was very grateful. It’s just been frustrating that the university hasn’t said anything, the only people I’ve heard from are other students or RAs,” she said.
Jane Goto, marketing and managing junior, said she went to a friend’s apartment after evacuating but was soon able to return to her dorm.
“The first thing we were worried about was our stuff because where it happened was like 15 feet away from our room,” Goto said. “Luckily our stuff was safe and OK, but the people right across the hall from us had a little bit of flooding.”
Goto also said her professors weren’t notified about the flooding so she had to email them.
“There was no communication with anyone from the school. I think the situation was handled very poorly,” she said. “I appreciate maintenance, they did incredible and did everything they could, but school officials didn’t do anything.”
Goto said she’s thankful for the students who helped handle the situation last night.
“The students have been incredible supporting each other and that’s the only reason I feel safe on campus right now, is because of the students,” she said.
Housing was unavailable to comment at the time of publication.
Students in need of assistance should contact campus police at (405) 208-5911 (emergency) or (405) 208-5001 (non-emergency). For any maintenance issues, students can contact housing at 405-208-6363.
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