Windsor experienced another flood as a result of sprinklers on Tuesday, March 12. This, in turn, caused the fire alarm to activate, forcing residents to evacuate.
Hooksett Fire Department responded to the incident initially, and residents couldn’t return to the building for about two hours. There were also unconfirmed reports of a small electrical fire during the incident.
In an email sent to students by Residence Life (housingquestions@snhu.edu) at 1:50 p.m. on that Tuesday, they explained that renovation crews “inadvertently set off the fire alarms and sprinkler systems, causing minor flooding in the building.” The email reads that the clean up efforts were completed as of the email’s reception, but “a couple individual suites have been impacted”, and “residents of these areas will be contacted by Residence Life specifically.”
As a result of flooding, internet access from the building was interrupted. Residence Life notified by email that, “unfortunately, internet access to the building has been impacted. We hope to have it restored this evening but will keep you updated as the work progresses.”
In an update email from Residence Life the next day at 11:14 a.m., they said, “the building is now reporting 96% building coverage with the expectation that the network will move to full capacity today.”
Eyewitness reports from residents state that the hallway with the two bathrooms, laundry room, and rear entrance door experienced the most flooding. The same day, a contractor specializing in water damage control set up multiple blower fans and dehumidifiers in the lobby and in the impacted areas. These have been actively running as of March 16.
Last year, Windsor experienced flooding on the second floor as a result of a pipe burst, forcing many residents to move out to other dorms.
An anonymous resident on the East side of first floor Windsor, was affected by the flooding. Their suite mate recalled seeing the flooding occurring when leaving for class. After being unable to enter the building for over an hour and a half, these residents came back to find water on the floor in their showers, as well as one of their rooms. One of the suite mates notified personnel that were in the lobby working. After someone had come to inspect the water, they we’re told that they didn’t have to temporarily move. The anonymous resident was told they would have to relocate for facilities to repair the roof.
However, the next day after the flooding, things changed.
“I haven’t heard from the RD directly since the flood regarding how we were dealing with the issue,” said the resident. When Facilities first set up a dehumidifier in my room, it was one of those little Kenmore ones. “When they replaced that with the big industrial one, they didn’t tell us how to use it.” Since then, a large blower fan has been set up in their room, which can be heard throughout the entire suite as well as the common room.
“Facilities comes to check daily, except the weekends. Sometimes they just let themselves in,” explained the suite mates. “We’re not getting any answers or information, it’s like they don’t want to communicate.”
No personal items of any residents were damaged.
