Broken sink in Marsh Hall floods hallway and multiple rooms

Flooding from a broken water line connected to a bathroom sink affected multiple rooms on the first and second floors of Marsh Hall just before 8 p.m. Sunday night. 

“I opened the door and there was water everywhere, and everyone was standing around taking pictures of it,” said first-year Lila Borden. 

A line underneath a sink on the second floor of Marsh accidentally came loose and water filled the bathroom and hall, said Patrol Officer David Selander of the University of Richmond Police Department.

Borden and her roommate Maggie Larkin, also a first-year, said people were walking through the water barefoot to get to the bathroom and see where the water was coming from while taking videos of the flood, but no one stopped the flow of water coming from the sink. 

Area Coordinator Bryan Field turned the 90-degree valve under the sink off to stop the flood, Selander said. 

Residents from the first and second floors walked between the halls to see what was happening as water leaked through a light fixture and pooled on the first floor of Marsh, Borden said. 

Sydney Seignious, a first-year living on the second floor of Marsh, said a layer of water extended halfway into her room. 

“The UR police were really good,” Seignious said. “They came in and tried to mop the water in each of the four rooms that were flooded.” 

Workers from University Facilities and campus police officers used water vacuums and mops to clear the water from the halls and rooms, said first-year Deirdre McLaughlin.

Two residents in the flooded section of the hall were away because of a lacrosse game when the flooding occurred, so people put towels in front of their door to prevent water from getting in the room, Borden said. The amount of water that leaked into their room is currently unknown, Borden and Larkin said. 

The water affected the carpet on both floors of Marsh and a couple of rooms, but no items were destroyed and no major damage was reported, Selander said.

Contact news writer Morgan Howland at morgan.howland@richmond.edu.