On September 10th, Austin Hall experienced a disastrous event after two male students accidentally kicked a soccer ball into a fire sprinkler, spewing a massive amount of water that spread throughout the building, ruining half of the building’s structure.
At 6:32 pm, students on the low-side (south side) of the ninth floor of Austin were shocked when they opened their doors. They could not believe their eyes, the amount of water now rapidly flowing down the hall! The students immediately notified both Resident Assistants (RAs) of the situation.Safely exiting the building became the next concern for both the students and RAs. Because of the amount of water, use of the elevators was deemed unsafe; another difficulty arose when it was discovered that water was seeping down two of the three stairwells. Thankfully, everyone was safely evacuated from the building in about ten minutes.
Nathan Morel, a sophomore studying Music Performance, is a Resident Assistant in Austin Hall and was in the building when the incident occurred. He made sure all students were out and safe. Â Morel then called security and facilities and said he struggled to explain the situation to the UT staff members since it was a complicated report.
About two and a half hours later, all residents were permitted to enter their rooms and stay in them for the night.  Morel was impressed of how quickly UT facilities cleaned up the mess and made sure no part of the floors remained wet, ensuring  students wouldn’t slip or get injured.
The extent of the damage is severe; not only did the fire sprinkler burst, but a major pipe in the building erupted as well. The entire low-side of Austin underwent damage and even the Austin Oak Room was completely soaked. Â The weight of the water traveling down the building caused some of the ceiling in the main lobby to collapse as well.
Alex Vrountas, a sophomore studying Communications, currently lives on the low-side of the ninth floor, and the fire sprinkler that was set off is located right in front of his door. Â He and his roommate were not in the building when the water was streaming from the ceiling. Â When they both returned to Austin, they could not believe how much water was covering the floors in the lobby and hallways. Â Campus security notified Vrountas and his roommate that their room had approximately eighteen inches of water damage. Â At that point, both boys just laughed about the situation because there was nothing they could do about it.
“I just feel bad for the poor kids who hit the thing.  They’ve got a big bill in front of them,” states Vrountas.  As of now, the two students who caused the flood to occur have already accumulated quite a large bill for the damages.
Since that evening, a disaster relief team has been working with facilities in order to restore Austin Hall to its original condition. Â Much of the drywall on each floor has been destroyed and clean-up workers are using giant fans to dry out the inside of the building, making sure that no mold manifests itself.
Selected residents from each floor will slowly be moved into the Howard Johnson Hotel (a.k.a The Barrymore Hotel) for a small period of time, as workers need to repair not only the hallways, but some dorm rooms as well.
The lesson we call learn from this story is, do not play hallway sports!
Even though the journey to repair Austin Hall will be extensive and aggravating at times, soon the dorm rooms will be good as new!
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