Fans fill the hallway of the Brady third floor dorm. (Sabrina Thompson/The Crest) 
First-year Colby Harrer says that there is a lingering smell from the flooding on the Brady Hall third floor. (Courtesy Ajay Amundson) 
A water mark on the ceiling of the third floor of Brady Hall after a football hit a sprinkler and sit it off on Dec. 3. (Sabrina Thompson/The Crest)
Brady Hall flooded Dec. 3 after a football hit a sprinkler head, Director of Residence Life Aaron Macke said.
Two Brady residents were playing catch in the third-floor hallway at about 8 p.m. when the ball broke the sprinkler, spraying water from the pipes into the hallway.
Residents evacuated the building as the fire alarm went off and were updated by Residence Life through the resident advisor group chats Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Macke said.
Floors four through seven were allowed to re-enter first, followed by one and two. The third floor was last to be allowed in because it retained the most water.
One resident advisory group chat message warned that the incident would “take a very long time” to handle.
This isn’t the first time Brady Hall has dealt with a football-related flooding incident. In 2012, a sprinkler head struck by a football caused “extensive flooding” on the sixth and seventh floors of Brady, according to a public safety brief.
“Throughout the night, Public Safety, Facilities Services, Facilities Maintenance and Residence Life worked hard to get the hall back into a condition that residents could stay overnight in their rooms,” Macke said.
The next day, Facilities Services and Residence Life went back into rooms and continued to extract and treat the carpets, Macke said.
Ajay Amundson, a first-year who lives on the third floor of Brady, said he was doing homework when he heard a loud noise, which he later found out was the sprinkler, from the hallway.
“I stepped out of the room, and I just saw a huge flood of water coming my way,” Amundson said. “I told my roommate, ‘Alright, let’s put our stuff up above, so nothing gets ruined.’ I’m glad I acted quickly.”
Amundson said that some people might not have been so lucky.
“(The fire alarm) went off about three minutes after the flooding happened,” Amundson said. “I was putting my stuff away, and (the alarm) went off right as the water reached my room.”
Amundson said he evacuated and stayed at a friend’s place for the night.
First-year Colby Harrer also lives on the third floor of Brady. He said he was walking back to his dorm when he heard the fire alarms going off and saw people gathered on the first floor.
“I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then I saw videos of what happened because all my friends were here, and they’re like, ‘Dude, we’re toast. We’re gonna be cooked,’” Harrer said.
Harrer said that Facilities staff put towels in front of doors to reduce the water levels inside rooms.
“I think it was handled well,” Harrer said.
“Just coming back here and seeing all the fans out, all the doors open and all the towels on the pipes — it was just a sight to see,” Amundson said.
Harrer said the reactions of the Resident Advisory staff created stress.
“The RAs were kind of freaking out, so they kind of made it worse,” Harrer said. “They were telling us, ‘No talking about it. We don’t want to spread rumors,’ but that just escalated it.”
Harrer said that almost everything in his room was saved, and almost a week after the incident, the flooding has been mostly dealt with.
“Most of my stuff wasn’t ruined. I mean, the floor was wet for a couple of days, but I’m (living) at the end of the hallway, so it didn’t really get to me,” Amundson said.
Almost a week later, however, people passing through the third floor can be heard complaining of lingering foul smells and the fans in the hallways.
“They treated all the floors and shampooed them multiple times — all of the hallways and our rooms. It still kind of smells, though,” Harrer said.
“I think there wasn’t much they could have done. I mean, it’s a wet floor,” Amundson said.
Jamie Hopson, a first-year living on the sixth floor of Brady, said that although the building’s elevator and bathrooms are functioning now, they were out of order for “a while” after the flooding.
Macke said this was because the St. Paul Fire Department and Public Safety shut off the water upon arrival.
“There were caution signs by the elevator, and the buttons didn’t work. It was inconvenient,” Hopson said.
According to Macke, nothing more is ongoing regarding the flooding and cleanup.
“Residents were patient and appreciative of how quickly staff responded and how hard staff worked to deal with the unfortunate incident,” Macke said.
Sabrina Thompson can be reached at thom4836@stthomas.edu.