Three rooms in Sullivan Hall flooded Tuesday night when a pipe in a first floor bathroom clogged.

“You could hear [the water] from outside,” Resident Assistant Katherine Glavin said. Her room on the ground floor directly under the bathroom had leaks through the closet and near the window. An adjacent room had a leak only near the window. The third room, on the first floor next to the bathroom, had water rush in under the door.

The water began to overflow at about 6:30 p.m. Public Safety arrived shortly after the leak was reported, but its initial effort was futile.

Officers attempted to collect water and dump it down the drains, but the water merely rose back up.

Eventually, the maintenance crew was forced to shut off the water in Sullivan for about three hours. Before that happened, however, students had to invent water removal methods.

“We eventually realized that we could take small garbage cans and place them in the closet under the leak,” said RA Traci Forberg, who was on duty at the time. “We then emptied out filled garbage cans once every three minutes for about an hour.”

After shutting off the water in Sullivan Hall between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., the maintenance crew successfully cleared the pipe and confirmed that no pipes had burst.

By about 11 p.m., the water was turned back on.

For students with damaged or ruined property, Residence Life has agreed to provide the necessary reimbursements for dry cleaning and replacement items.