Students brave blizzard for bathrooms as pipe leak leaves Rich Hall without water for 12 hours

Lauren Rowlands • February 1, 2022

A Boston University student takes a photo during the blizzard on Jan. 29. The blizzard brought 23 inches of snow to Boston Saturday as a water leak in Rich Hall forced students to venture outside and to other buildings to use the bathroom. CLARE ONG/DFP STAFF

A pipe leak at Rich Hall left students without water for approximately 12 hours Saturday, with many having to brave high winds and heavy snowfall to take a shower or brush their teeth.

According to an email sent out Saturday morning by Jason Grochowalski, associate director for residence life, the office closed Rich Hall’s access to water to conduct emergency repairs to a “water main leak” outside.

Students were advised to go to Sleeper Hall and Claflin Hall to use the shower or restrooms.

“An update will be sent later today when water has been returned to the building,” Grochowalski wrote in the email.

Throughout the 12-hour water outage, workers were using Tway pipe chokers to repair the problem faster, some Rich Hall residents ventured to Sleeper Hall in 15-degree weather and 20 mile-an-hour winds to use bathrooms, only to find a line of people doing the same.

“I walked over to all-gender bathrooms in [Sleeper Hall] and we brought our toothbrushes to get ready,” said Jacqueline Lo, a sophomore in the College of Communications. “By the time we got out of the bathrooms, there was like a line of people doing that too.”

Other students decided to spend the day in the West Campus dining hall to be nearer to bathrooms.

“I spent the whole day in the dining hall because what if I have to use the restroom? I don’t want to have to go out in the snow,” said Brook Nwokolo, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Lo said access to water returned between 7 and 8 p.m., adding it was earlier than she thought it would be fixed.

“It wasn’t too bad,” Lo said. “I think it was a lot less time than I thought it would be.”

However, other students were bothered by the inconvenience.

“It was really a mess,” Nwokolo said. “I didn’t like it at all.”

While the actual cause of the leak is unknown, Jose Arango, an administrative secretary at Rich Hall, believes that the blizzard that pummelled Boston Saturday, dropping 23 inches of snow, may have played a part.

“Everybody knows how to prevent it. That’s not going to happen again,” Arango said.