Excuse the pun… I couldn’t resist. The water main in Holcomb/Gallahue burst (or something equally dramatic) today, and all students had to evacuate the building. The excitement was such that I almost wished I had decided to hang around in the Gallahue physics lounge a bit longer, but I’ve been finished with my physics problem set since Wednesday night’s study tables and I had things to do in the adjoining academic building Jordan.

So I missed the “Everybody out! ” moments. I did, however, take pictures.

This might have been the scene of the crime: It seemed to be the source of all the water. Below, you see all the people standing around and a close up of the gushing torrents of liquid making a waterfall out of the steps between Holcomb and Gallahue.

drip

drop

drip

drop

drip

drop

drip…

puddle.

The next sequence of pictures follows the water down the hill all the way to the old entrance to the pharmacy building. Water, water everywhere indeed.

Between this and the fire alarm, Butler seems to having a lot of maintenance problems. I guess the cold is to blame for issues with heating systems (the source of last night’s smoke in the apartment down the hall) and water pipes. What a debacle. I hope it’s as easy a fix as may be expected.

[UPDATE: This was sent as an email message to all students: "This afternoon, around 2:15 p.m., a water main adjacent to Gallahue Hall and the Holcomb Building broke causing flooding in the lower levels of both buildings and power outages in Gallahue, Holcomb, Robertson and the older portion of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences building. We anticipate that all buildings, except Gallahue, will be open tomorrow."]