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The Rice Thresher
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by Mark Berenson thresher staff The basement of Jones College's south building flooded during a heavy rainstorm on the evening of Oct. 16. No major damaged was reported. The flooding was indirectly caused by construction in the area, where work on the new Jones House and Martel College is underway. At Jones South, a steel pipe drains the water from the roof and pumps it out from the basement, where a small amount of water usually collects when it rains. The steel pipe connects to a concrete pipe outside the wall of the college. Over time, two pipes shifted so they were no longer aligned, said Barry Smith, superintendent of the company overseeing construction at the north colleges. This did not cause a problem at first because the ground around the pipes was packed tightly. However, a few days before the rainstorm, construction required digging near the pipe. Because the dirt was loose when it rained, all the water previously draining out of Jones ended up going into the basement, the pumps were overwhelmed and flooding began. Sgt. Les Hulsey said he was walking by Jones South's outer basement stairwell about 10 p.m. Oct. 16 when he "heard something that sounded like rapids." Water was flooding into the room with the pumps, and Hulsey estimates that the water in the sunken room was four feet deep. Hulsey turned on the backup pumps, but water was running into the main basement hallway anyway. Hulsey called Facilities and Engineering, which sent custodians and the evening maintenance crew with additional pumps. Once the water receded, pumps continued running until about 4 a.m. to keep the water level down. Jones junior Anna Havey said she went to the basement to do laundry at about 10:30 p.m. "When the elevator stopped, I heard the sound of rushing water, and when the door opened, the water started rushing into the elevator shaft," Havey said. Havey estimated that between an inch and an inch and a half of water was on the floor. According to junior Steven Wilbur, Jones' construction representative, the water level in the basement was four inches at the most. The next morning, F&E cleaned up the basement and construction workers fixed the misaligned pipes. The following evening, there was another heavy rainstorm, but no flooding was reported. According to Wilbur, the only damage in the basement was to the carpet in Stoll's, a room in the basement for student gatherings. Wilbur posted a message on the Jones newsgroup asking students for reports of damaged items, but he said no one has contacted him. Smith said this was the first complication with the construction that has directly affected Jones. "On a project of this size, you're going to have some annoyances to the residents," Smith said.
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