Leebrick Hall floors three and eight flooded on Tuesday night leaving about an inch of water in the hallway, dorm rooms and bathrooms.

A maintenance worker came to the third floor to fix a leaky toilet around 10 p.m.. When he went to shut off the water, the water shut-off valve broke.

“That escalated from a leak to flooding the third flood,” said Cecil Pourner, ACPM Specialist at Kent State who arrived at Leebrick to assist the maintenance worker. “We looked for shut-offs… We even called for help to find out where they were. I ended up shutting all the water off to the building.”

Maintenance installed a new shut-off valve, but the third floor was already flooded. When Pourner turned the building’s water back on, it caused a water line to break on the eighth floor, causing the floor to flood about 35 minutes later.

Ryan Brown, a Kent State custodian, was called to Leebrick to clear the flood on the eighth floor using heavy water removal equipment.

“We’re doing this floor, but there’s a bunch of people on every floor helping out because there’s just so much,” Brown said.

Aidan Dugan, sophomore aeronautics major and third floor resident, said the water came out of nowhere.

“I was sitting at my desk and I felt water on my feet, I thought I spilled my drink or something,” Dugan said. “I turn my light on and there’s water gushing in from the hallway.”

Jordan Piskach, a freshman architecture major and eighth floor resident, realized his room was flooded when he “took a step off my bed and it was straight in the water.”

He went around his room to get his things onto high ground before evacuating. Piskach was offered a temporary room in Korb hall, but decided to stay off-campus instead.

Elena Kandola, a freshman fashion design major and eighth floor resident, had her laptop charging on the floor of her room. When she discovered the flood, she unplugged everything, threw it on her bed and left. She’s not sure if her laptop still works. 

J’Khari Lamar, sophomore studio art major and third floor resident, had a rug that soaked up the water and was “so heavy I can’t even lift it at the moment.”

She didn’t notice that her room flooded until she heard the loud water removal equipment, which she initially thought was a vacuum. Then she saw photos from her floor group chat of the flooded hallway.

“I was stepping into a puddle of water and I couldn’t do anything but go through,” Lamar said.

Tyler Raybuck, a senior computer engineering tech major and fifth floor resident, had water dripping from the floor above onto his desk. He moved his desk and electronics towards the center of his room and put towels down to catch the water.

The loud water removal machines were running past 1 a.m. to clean up the flood. After the majority of the water was removed from floors three and eight, the carpet was left with a musty smell and was damp to the touch. Residents stood in the hallway with their doors propped open and fans airing out their rooms.

Megan Becker is an assigning editor. Contact her at [email protected].