Around 7 p.m. on Sept. 23, a rainstorm brought torrential rains that led to indoor flooding across campus.
Majorly affected areas included Johnny’s, the CIT helpdesk, the 3rd vR lobby, an area near the testing center in Hiemenga Hall, and at least one other residential area, according to reporting done by Joe Toly. According to Jennifer Ambrose, director of fFacilities and environmental health and safety, the “facilities team responded promptly and managed to extract the vast majority of water on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we enlisted the help of a commercial flood restoration service, 360 Fire and Flood, to tackle the remaining water and provide fans to ensure the carpet [was] thoroughly dried.”
Johnny’s was closed Sept. 24, according to a post by John Witte, but Creative Dining increased supplies in Uppercrust to accommodate the closure, and Peet’s continued to operate as normal. The CIT desk told Chimes that they were operating as normal, with team members working just outside their normal desk with a fan blowing to dry out the space. According to Abrose, they “anticipate being able to remove the drying fans and move tables and chairs back into place by 3 p.m. on Friday.”
John Zimmerman, associate director of public relations, told Chimes in an email on Wednesday, Sept. 24 that, “it came down so quickly that the ground simply couldn’t absorb it fast enough, and as a result, several buildings experienced flooding.” Facilities worked to remove water overnight, “and today they’re going building to building to ensure everything is dry and safe. Johnny’s will remain closed for the day as cleanup continues — while the water has been removed, we want to make sure the space is fully dried before reopening.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the Grand Rapids area received 3 to 7 inches of rainfall in less than an hour, leading to flash flooding warnings issued to local phones. “Flash floods occur when heavy rainfall exceeds the ability of the ground to absorb it…They can happen within minutes of the causative rainfall, limiting the time available to warn and protect the public,” is the specific classification given to flash floods by NOAA.
Elizabeth Karnes, a sophomore elementary education student, shared her experience in Johnny’s during the storm. Karnes said that to avoid walking in the rain, she went down to Johnny’s to wait it out, only to find water pouring through the doors. She and her friends contacted Campus Safety immediately and got towels from Commons to help stop the water.
Jack Gates, a Sophomore mechanical engineering student, said that “we walked up to the front of where the water was coming in and we saw that there was about maybe two-thirds of a foot of water up against the edge of the glass of the doors.”
Karnes and Gates went around The Cave, clearing the water of wires, and by that point, the water was past their ankles. Eventually, they noticed an issue with the drain. “[My friend] and I went around, went outside, got soaking wet, and we’re trying to find the drain. He found the drain, and then we were just unclogging, unclogging, unclogging, and it kept getting clogged. Unclogging, taking all the leaves out. And then it started to drain,” Karnes said. Gates said that when they went to unclog the drain, the water was halfway up to their knees.
Gates explained to Chimes that he was worried about both the expenses this may have cost the university as well as ruined materials, such as carpets. “It was very important to me for multiple reasons to make sure that we were stopping that from becoming a big deal because the water would have kept flowing,” Gates said.
According to Zimmerman, there has been no lasting damage.
