USF’s Pinnacle Hall, a residence hall in The Village, experienced a six-room flood last week. ORACLE PHOTO/COLE ABRUZZESE

Charlie Abernathy, a freshman hospitality management major, said about 150 to 200 residents were evacuated from USF’s Pinnacle Hall on Jan. 28.

Pinnacle Hall is a residence hall in The Village that opened in August 2018 and offers traditional and suite-style rooms with single- and double-bed options, according to USF Housing and Residential Education. 

Abernathy said a fire alarm sounded around 8:20 p.m., and students left the building thinking it might be a drill.

“I was talking to some of the RAs, and they were talking about a flood,” Abernathy said. “The fire alarm went off at the exact same time as that happened.”

USF spokesperson Althea Johnson said maintenance responded to a call regarding water intrusion on the third floor of Pinnacle Hall that night.

Johnson said the crew determined the flood was caused by an “over-pressurized plumbing tube” in a bathroom, affecting six rooms.

The tube has since been repaired, and “mitigation measures” have been taken in the impacted rooms, she said.

Abernathy said he and other students in the residence hall initially expected the evacuation to last “a few minutes.”

“[But] we were outside for longer [than expected], and [nearby RA’s] were like, ‘Well, we don’t know when you’re going to go back in,’” Abernathy said.

Pinnacle Hall residents returned to their rooms within two hours of the flooding incident, but said the event was unexpected and confusing due to a lack of communication. 

Related: USF works to restore Castor Hall after flooding displaces students 

Todd Jacob Vreeland, a freshman environmental science and policy major, said residents were not immediately informed about what was happening.

Vreeland said people quickly left the building when the alarm sounded.

“There was a little bit of panic, but that’s kind of expected in these types of situations,” he said. 

Because he wasn’t sure about what was happening, Vreeland said he tried to inspect the building from the outside.

“Right after getting out, my first step was [to] walk around, see if there’s any issues that are visible,” Vreeland said. “I did, and there wasn’t any.”

Vreeland said students only learned of a flooding issue later that night from the building’s resident assistants. 

Vreeland, a first-floor resident, said he was not personally affected by the flooding.

Related: USF’s dining provider switch leads to closure of Pinnacle Hall restaurants

Brenton Busby, a freshman mechanical engineering major, said he lives on the fifth floor of Pinnacle Hall and was only a “couple of rooms” away from the flood when it happened.

Busby said he saw the flooding as he and other students, who were unprepared for the cold outside, evacuated the building.

Some students even left for other residence halls in the meantime because of how cold it was outside, Vreeland said.

Florida recently experienced a series of record-breaking cold fronts, resulting in days of near- and below-freezing temperatures across the Tampa Bay area, according to the National Weather Service. 

On Jan. 28, the overnight low was 38 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Busby said students were unsure what was happening during the evacuation and were left with minimal details about the event or the building’s condition. 

“We were curious if the water lit something on fire, like a wire, and a spark went off, and something was actually on fire,” he said.

Still, Busby said everything seemed to be “cleaned up” the next day.

Vreeland said that once residents were allowed to re-enter the building, he spotted ceiling tiles removed and water pumps and fans in the first-floor hallway.

“I did go up to the second and third floor where I heard there were issues and looked,” he said. “The second floor was, there was no sign of anything, but on the third floor, there was some work that seemed to still be going on.”