Several buildings on campus suffered from pipe breakages and water leaks this weekend.
One such incident in the Saybrook dining hall caused dinner to be canceled on Sunday evening. Around 5 p.m. on Sunday, members of the New Haven Fire Department arrived at the residential college to investigate reports that the room had flooded. A broken pipe caused water to rain down the ceiling, preventing students from entering either the eating or kitchen areas.
An email sent by Saybrook operations manager Ann-Marie Apicella at 5:45 p.m. notified the Saybrook community of the closing, encouraging them to make alternate dinner plans.
“We apologize for the inconvenience but the severely cold weather was the cause for a pipe broken in the Saybrook Dining Hall,” Apicella continued in the message.
Ermal Hajrizi ’17 said he was studying in the Saybrook library when an alarm system sounded, ordering students to evacuate the building. He added that, once outside, he could see water streaming down the windows of the dining hall.
Hajrizi also said that water, likely seeping through the dining hall’s floor, entered the college’s basement as well, though the damage was minimal and mainly consisted of a few puddles across the basement floor.
Saybrook students have not been informed about whether dining hall operations will resume Monday, but Hajrizi said cleaning crews were working Sunday evening to clear the water and prevent further damage.
John Bollier, Yale’s associate vice president of the Office of Facilities, could not be reached for comment Sunday evening.
Students in Branford College, adjacent to Saybrook, were also informed of the flood by an email from Branford Master Elizabeth Bradley, which noted that the cause may have instead been a malfunctioning indoor sprinkler. Though Sunday night dinners are typically reserved for Family Night — when students are expected to eat in their residential college’s dining hall — Bradley warned her students that Saybrook students would likely eat in Branford or other colleges for dinner that evening.
“Please welcome them as family tonight,” her email said.
Although Saybrook and Branford share a kitchen facility, Branford’s dining operations were not affected by the flood.
The incident in Saybrook may have affected the most students on campus, though it was not the only water-related hazard reported this weekend.
In the East Asia Library in Sterling Memorial Library, Alec Downie ’16 said he saw a leak from the room’s ceiling near a radiator around noon on Sunday. He reported the issue to a security guard, who then dispatched maintenance staff to identify the source of the leak and investigate if it was coming from a higher floor, he said.
“Fortunately it wasn’t in a space [in which] library materials were in danger,” Downie said, adding that he suspected rising temperatures on Sunday to have played a role in causing the problem.
The Berkeley College common room, which is located directly outside the college’s dining hall, also experienced a leak that appeared to come from a crack in the room’s wooden alcoves, according to Helen Zhao ’17.
Berkeley meal operations were unaffected, and by 8 p.m. Sunday, the water had stopped leaking.
“The leak was in an area of the common room that people usually sit in when Berkeley is crowded,” Anna Russo ’17 said. “Luckily it was family night, so Berkeley wasn’t so busy and it didn’t cause much of a problem.”