2 Othmer floods leave students stranded

Several floors at Othmer Hall flooded after two pipes burst on Thursday, leaving pools of water over the building’s lobby and nearly two dozen suites and forcing some students to find alternative housing for the night.

The first pipe burst in a seventh-floor dorm at 11:20 a.m., quickly soaking the room with an inch of water and seeping into the suites below. At 6:30 p.m., a larger pipe burst on the fourth floor, leaving the suites and hallways covered in puddles of water. Flood water poured through all of the lower floors and into the residence hall’s lobby, affecting at least 23 suites and prompting staff to close off its front entrance. By 10 p.m., the building’s operational systems were fully restored.

“My roommate goes to the windowsill and starts seeing dripping, and we realized it’s happening again,” Tandon first-year Ashiq Rahman, whose dorm was the site of the second pipe burst, told WSN. “We just finished cleaning up and drying the first wave and boom, it just starts pouring again. It’s just crazy.”

Othmer houses 400 residents at NYU’s Brooklyn campus. Garvv Goel, a Tandon first-year whose room was the source of the first pipe burst, said he was studying in a common area and heard a loud thud. He initially did not notice the pipe burst, but was notified when the maintenance workers arrived with buckets and water-drying equipment around 20 minutes later. 

When Goel checked his bedroom, water was leaking out of the wall next to his roommate’s bed. Maintenance workers tried to slow the leak, but the flow of water did not fully stop until several hours later. Tandon first-year Alex Heath, who lives two floors below Goel, told WSN that the flood caused damages amounting to around $150, including to her mattress and laundry.

“I open my room door and I just see this massive overtake of water — it’s like a waterfall on my window,” Heath said. “It was just devastating. It hasn’t been long enough to where I even feel comfortable in my dorm yet.”

Administrators at Othmer sent an email to residents shortly after 3 p.m., saying that the hall will remain open as building engineers and housekeeping staff work to remedy the pipe burst, adding that formal repairs will start within the next week and a half. Heath said that after she emailed her hall director asking for a new dorm, they told her to stay in her room because there was no immediate danger. They also said that they would reimburse her for laundry but that all other damages would have to be covered by insurance.

“While damage was limited, some personal items belonging to students were affected,” NYU spokesperson Joseph Tirella wrote in a statement to WSN. “All students impacted by this incident have been provided details on how to complete the damage/claim process to receive reimbursements for any damaged material.”

Rahman said his fourth-floor dorm was mildly affected by the first wave of flooding. Before the second pipe burst, he started hearing a crackling sound coming from his air conditioning unit and noticed brown water dripping near the window once again — though this time it held a “swampy” smell that remained in his dorm throughout the evening. He said the building staff told him that because the damaged pipe contained water that came from outside sources and was not “domestic,” the university was unable to turn the tap off. 

“They didn’t let anyone else fill in on the situation, and kind of left us in the dark,” Rahman said. “Our RA told us this has been happening yearly for the past three years. So that was very concerning.”

Goel said residence hall director Alexandria Guokas told him over a phone call that he will receive a temporary housing assignment at NYU’s Clark Street dorm — a half-mile walk from Othmer — which was the last vacant room available. Seven other students received accommodations from the university.

Several students told WSN that they have submitted numerous work orders since the semester began, requesting repairs for pipe leakage and air conditioning — and that many were left unanswered. On several instances, maintenance staff reportedly told them the issues were not of concern.

“It really just reflects what I see often — that NYU doesn’t hold the standards here to the same as the Manhattan campus,” Heath said. “It feels like we get the short end of the straw in every aspect.”

A pipe burst caused similar flooding at University Hall in late September. Affected students were offered a six-day accommodation at Greenwich Hall and compensation for dry cleaning and damaged personal belongings if they could provide receipts. 

11/7: This article was updated to include information from a university spokesperson.

Contact Kaitlyn Sze Tu at kszetu@nyunews.com.

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Several floors at Othmer Hall flooded after two pipes burst on Thursday, leaving pools of water over the building’s lobby and nearly two dozen suites and forcing some students to find alternative housing for the night. The first pipe burst in a seventh-floor dorm at 11:20 a.m., quickly soaking the room with an inch of…