The buzzing of more than a half-dozen fans filled the fourth-floor hallways of Allison Hall Sunday in an attempt to clear the musty smell and soggy remains of Thursday night’s flood.
After a pipe burst in the fourth-floor laundry room, flooding in the dorm’s west wing displaced about 35 students on its second, third and fourth floors. Most of those students have since been able to return to their rooms.
Mark D’Arienzo, associate director of university housing, said he offered to provide affected students extra rooms in Public Affairs Residential College after seeing the initial damage Thursday night. Six people opted to take that route, and all others chose to stay with friends, he said.
D’Arienzo said his office was working as quickly as possible to get everyone back to their rooms.
“We are assessing on a room-by-room basis,” he said. “People will be back depending on how close they were to the damage.”
Cleaning crews were sent to the scene as early as possible, D’Arienzo said.
“The crews were in there as of early Friday morning taking care of everything, drying things, cleaning up,” he said. “Basically making the rooms in Allison as inhabitable as they can be as soon as possible.”
Weinberg freshman Anne McMurray, a fourth-floor Allison resident, said the water stopped a few doors away from hers, but she could still see the damage.
“The bathroom was pretty disgusting,” McMurray said. “There was standing water for a while, but it’s gone now. The laundry room is gross. There are black streaks everywhere and (the machines) have not been fixed.”
McMurray said the state of the dorm is not what concerns her most. She said several of her friends want to be compensated for damaged property.
Virginia Koch, senior assistant director of residential life, sent a memo Friday afternoon detailing procedures for students to report damaged belongings. She wrote Northwestern can only reimburse students for damaged items turned in to Leland Roth, assistant director of risk management, and that no student can be compensated for discarded belongings.
Stephanie Gross said she followed the memo’s directions but has yet to hear about her ruined belongings.
“I gave them the stuff I found that night that was damaged and a list of how much everything cost,” said Gross, a Weinberg freshman. “They said they would get back to me, but no one has. I have also called them back with other things I have found damaged since then, but I still haven’t heard anything.”
Gross said she would have appreciated a more personal approach to the situation.
“I have not actually had direct contact with any administrator about this,” Gross said. “The only person who has spoken to me about it is my (community assistant).”
Not all students felt they were able to turn in their damaged belongings for compensation.
Weinberg sophomore Jason Eng said many of his textbooks were damaged in the flood, but he has not contacted the Office of Risk Management.
“In order to get reimbursed you have to turn in the damaged stuff,” Eng said. “But I need my books to study. I can’t turn them in.”
Koch’s memo encouraged students to replace textbooks immediately through Amazon.com or other booksellers, and said students should save and turn in their damaged texts for reimbursement. Books will be reimbursed at prices comparable to those listed on Amazon, the memo said.
Eng said his room had more than an inch of water on the floor Thursday night, and he had to sleep in a friend’s room.
He said he thought that overall, the situation was taken care of in a timely fashion.
“Given the circumstances, I think they handled it well,” Eng said. “This isn’t the type of thing you can expect. It’s kind of a strange incident to have happen.”
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