Heavy rain in Oakland caused leaks and flooding in multiple campus buildings on Thursday evening.
Academic, residential and recreation buildings, including the Recreation and Wellness Center, Hillman Library, Posvar Hall, the Litchfield Towers, Sutherland Hall and the William Pitt Union, were impacted by the downpour. Water seeped through windows and dripped from ceilings, and one building experienced a partial ceiling collapse on an entrance floor.
A Pitt spokesperson and representatives for the Office of Facilities Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Major roadways including Fifth Avenue and Bates Street in South Oakland experienced significant water accumulation throughout the evening. At 8:15 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning in effect until 12:15 a.m. The alert called conditions “dangerous and life-threatening” and warned not to attempt travel unless “fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”
Around 6:50 p.m., a Sutherland Hall resident witnessed a ceiling tile and light fixture collapse near the building’s east entrance. The student had gone to the lobby with a roommate after hearing about a ceiling leak. A video of the incident, widely circulated on the popular college social media platform YikYak, depicts another student walking near where a puddle had formed as the ceiling tile fell.
Photos provided by another Sutherland resident, Ava Nguyen, appear to show that a second ceiling tile collapsed to the left of the first.
Two broken ceiling tiles sit atop a wet carpet near Sutherland Hall’s east entrance on Thursday, Sept. 3.
At the Recreation and Wellness Center, water appeared to seep under the building’s revolving doors on the fifth floor. The patio between the building and a hill leading up to Panther Hall was also heavily flooded. Students reported seeing the water flow downhill, creep toward the front desk and nearly reach the adjacent ID scanners.
“It was yellow-ish water getting all over the floor, and I was lucky to get across it,” Shuda Zhong, an electrical and computer engineering PhD student, said.
Harita Venkatesh, a first-year biochemistry major, also saw the rec center flooding.
“All the water just collected on [the carpeted area in the front], and it was like muck and brown, and it was just everywhere,” Venkatesh said. “It just spread out so much.”
First-year economics major Tim Madden said the rec center’s revolving doors were “totally unusable.”
“And you could barely see the floor because it was both muddy and flooded,” Madden said.
Rec center staff were seen using dozens of blue towels to clear the flood.
Rec center staff work to stop the flow of floodwater near the building’s fifth floor entrance on Thursday, Sept. 3.
Nguyen, a first-year nursing major, lives in Sutherland West and had a crack appear above her bed that started leaking into the room.
“I had to put bowls underneath to catch the water, but at that point, my bed was already soaked because the water was coming out pretty quick,” Nguyen said. “When I called Panther Central about it, they said they had about 50 other people calling about the same issue, so I guess it was a really big issue.”
A representative for Panther Central reached by phone declined to comment on the number of reported leaks in campus buildings.
Ahead of the evening’s storm, Pitt Program Council had planned to put on its annual bonfire and pep rally on the Cathedral lawn. The event typically features fireworks and appearances from the Pitt football team in anticipation of the weekend’s season opener.
PPC canceled Thursday’s bonfire, but a representative confirmed the group would look to reschedule. A timeframe for the event’s new date was not provided.
This is a developing story. The Pitt News will publish updates as they become available.