UPB Evacuates Students Due to Flooding
By Kimberly Marcott Weinberg
Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford evacuated about 160 students from on-campus housing along the Tunungwant Creek early Wednesday morning after hours of steady rain caused the creek to flood.
Pitt-Bradford also canceled classes for the day and asked about 100 students to move vehicles from parking areas along the creek.
About 100 students spent the night in the Frame-Westerberg Commons, said Dr. K. James Evans, vice president and dean of student affairs. “We had some students playing cards, some watching TV and some playing board games,” he said. Some students rolled up their socks and started a game of baseball in the Mukaiyama University Room, which became their diamond for the overnight.
Around 3 a.m., Dan Howard, general manager of dining services, came in and opened up the KOA Dining Room for bagels, ice cream and cereal.
Students slept on couches and in corridors.
“They were pretty much all over the building,” Evans said. “The students have been just wonderful. They saw it as an adventure.”
With colder temperatures turning precipitation to snow and water levels falling by mid-morning, students were allowed to return to their residences at 9:45 a.m.
Evans said the students were evacuated when water was within a few inches of the tops of the stoops of the townhouse-style residences.
“We always evacuate when the water’s that high,” he said, as a precautionary measure. Water did not reach the first floor of the buildings.
Peter Buchheit, director of facilities management, said that although water reached crawl spaces, none reached the occupied areas of buildings. Maintenance crews will spend their day pumping out crawl spaces, clearing logs and other debris left by receding floodwaters and keeping sidewalks and roads clear as rain turns to snow.
Early in the morning, campus police jumped into action to contact about 100 students whose vehicles were endangered by flood waters. If a student could not be reached, police had his or her vehicle towed to safety.
Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford evacuated about 160 students from on-campus housing along the Tunungwant Creek early Wednesday morning after hours of steady rain caused the creek to flood.
Pitt-Bradford also canceled classes for the day and asked about 100 students to move vehicles from parking areas along the creek.
About 100 students spent the night in the Frame-Westerberg Commons, said Dr. K. James Evans, vice president and dean of student affairs. “We had some students playing cards, some watching TV and some playing board games,” he said. Some students rolled up their socks and started a game of baseball in the Mukaiyama University Room, which became their diamond for the overnight.
Around 3 a.m., Dan Howard, general manager of dining services, came in and opened up the KOA Dining Room for bagels, ice cream and cereal.
Students slept on couches and in corridors.
“They were pretty much all over the building,” Evans said. “The students have been just wonderful. They saw it as an adventure.”
With colder temperatures turning precipitation to snow and water levels falling by mid-morning, students were allowed to return to their residences at 9:45 a.m.
Evans said the students were evacuated when water was within a few inches of the tops of the stoops of the townhouse-style residences.
“We always evacuate when the water’s that high,” he said, as a precautionary measure. Water did not reach the first floor of the buildings.
Peter Buchheit, director of facilities management, said that although water reached crawl spaces, none reached the occupied areas of buildings. Maintenance crews will spend their day pumping out crawl spaces, clearing logs and other debris left by receding floodwaters and keeping sidewalks and roads clear as rain turns to snow.
Early in the morning, campus police jumped into action to contact about 100 students whose vehicles were endangered by flood waters. If a student could not be reached, police had his or her vehicle towed to safety.
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