A water valve broke in Hamilton Hall the week before classes started, causing an estimated 2,400 gallons of water to flood the building and damage multiple spaces in the basement.

Michael Dahlstrom, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, said the valve was shut off within 40 minutes. 

Dahlstrom said Facilities Planning and Management did an “amazing job” working on the damage from the flood.

“They were cleaning the water [and] replacing ceiling tiles,” Dahlstrom said. “In certain areas where there was a lot of water, they’ve drilled some holes in the drywall to help dry out that piece of drywall.”

According to Dahlstrom, the water valve failing was not caused by the cold.

“There [was] no way of predicting when it would or wouldn’t happen,” Dahlstrom said. “It was not the weather.”

Furthermore, Dahlstrom said that, fortunately, most of the equipment in the building was spared.

“The water decided to go elsewhere so it’s mostly ceiling tiles [and] classrooms, that type of damage,” Dahlstrom said.

Dahlstrom said he is getting an estimate Thursday to determine when the building will reopen.

“The best guess is some rooms will probably be available,” Dahlstrom said. “We’ll probably reopen next week. There’ll be a handful of rooms that will need more time and there might be a few rooms past that that will need even more time, so it’ll reopen in phases, but hopefully sooner than later.”

According to an email statement to the Daily, class locations in Hamilton Hall will be moved during the first week.

“Use the temporary location course list at either of the following links to identify where your classes scheduled in Hamilton Hall will be held Jan. 22 to 24,” the email stated.

• Excel version:
• Word version:

“The response from the college, from room scheduling, from [Facilities Planning and Management], everyone has been amazing, so I’m very impressed and want to give them some credit,” Dahlstrom said.