A leak in a chilled water pipe flooded Leebrick Hall Sunday morning around midnight John White, associate director for Residence Services, said.

White said the chilled water pipe had a small leak that eventually ruptured on the fifth floor of Leebrick Hall.

Kent’s Communications and Marketing Coordinator Bob Burford said 27 single-student dorm rooms were affected.

“There, at times, were as much as one to two inches of water in the hallways,” Burford said. “People were on the scene almost instantly.”

Leebrick resident Rachel Barrera, a junior marketing major, heard the water but thought someone was showering with a door open until she realized the showers were unoccupied.

“Water was literally gushing down both sides of the hallway,” Barrera said.

Barrera said she rushed to her room to get everything off the floor before the water started coming into her dorm.

“I eventually gathered four recycling bins and lined them under the window to stop the water,” Barrera said. “It was funny, and I guess you could say it was character building.”

White said, water was cascading down the stairs and coming through the ceilings from the fourth floor to the first.

“There was about two or three inches of water on the fifth floor,” White said. “There were about 4 to 6 inches of water on the first floor and there was water on every floor in between.”

Students were told to gather anything else that was damaged from the leak so the university could replace them, White said. Any rugs, clothing and bedding that got wet were washed and returned to the students.

Staff members called students who were away over the weekend to inform them of the situation and to make sure they weren’t surprised when they returned.

Burford said students were offered temporary housing while the water was being cleaned, but no one accepted the offer.

“It was an unfortunate thing that happened,” White said. “We tried to react as quickly as we could.”

Contact Mackenzie Blanton at [email protected].