Cabot House Entryway Flooded

Residents in Cabot House’s Eliot Hall received a shock yesterday after a sprinkler pipe burst, flooding I entryway and forcing students out of their dorms for several hours.

At around 3 p.m., Ajay G. Kumar ’08 was working in his second-floor dorm room when he heard a noise that became increasingly louder.

“I looked out the window and saw a disgusting brown waterfall pouring down the side...of Cabot,” Kumar said.

“I ran to get help from the senior tutor [Stephen H. Kargere], but by the time I got back to my room, there were four or five inches of water,” he added. “They say it’s sprinkler water, which I suppose is true, but it smells really bad and is brown.”

Two floors down, resident tutor Michael Aktipis was working in Cabot House Library when he saw water coming from the walls and the ceiling.

“It looked like you were in the Titanic, and that’s when I realized something was seriously wrong,” Aktipis said.

Kumar, Aktipis, and Ashley R. Fure, another resident tutor in Cabot, retrieved a master key to all I-entryway rooms and began grabbing laptops from rooms in an attempt to salvage students’ property.

“With senior theses due right around the corner, we wanted to make sure the laptops didn’t drown,” Aktipis said.

As news of the burst pipe spread, e-mails bemoaning the “shitwater” inundating I entryway started flooding Cabot’s open list.

Anxious students were quickly calmed by e-mails from Fure and Cabot House Master Jay M. Harris, who informed students that the water was, in fact, from a broken sprinkler pipe.

Harris, who is also the Wolfson professor of Jewish studies, said last night that Harvard would reimburse students for any damanged goods, and Fure told students that Kargere, the resident dean, could write extensions for those students writing theses or with upcoming midterms.

Harris said that a few hours after the incident, maintenance professionals and Harvard University Police Department officers had determined that the damage was limited, and that non-affected students would be allowed to return to their rooms.

“There were three rooms that were affected, and students from those rooms have found other accommodations for the moment, but the rest of the entryway seems to be okay,” Harris added.

According to Kumar, it was initially believed that the library had sustained the worst of the damage. A pool of water had collected on the floor, and murky water was pouring out of chandeliers.

But Harris said that an extensive examination of the entryway showed that while a few dorm rooms were damaged, the library did not bear the brunt of the flood’s infliction.

“It is less damage than originally thought, said Harris. “Some parts did get wet, but the most valuable books are fine. It could have been worse.”

—Staff writer Aditi Banga can be reached at abanga@fas.harvard.edu.