 "Photo: Lucy Moore | Student Life")
Correction Appended Below
When Loop Lofts resident Gregory Marks woke up at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 16, he did expect anything out of the ordinary.
But when his feet touched the watery floor, the morning became anything but typical.
“I just got up [like] regular, put my feet down, and all of a sudden my feet were wading around and up to my shins in water,” Marks, a junior, said.
Marks was one of many residents of the off-campus, Residential Life-owned apartments who woke up that morning to find their apartments filling up with water after the remnants of Hurricane Ike caused flooding in several local neighborhoods.
“I was pretty frantic at that point. I was running around my room, see[ing] shoes floating around,” he said. “I tried to get everything off the floor as fast as I could, on the tabletops and things like that.”
Overall, the Loop Lofts suffered significant damage from the flood. Dozens of students’ vehicles and many of the students’ belongings were destroyed and the two buildings’ first floors were flooded, sometimes with more than a foot of water.
According to Josh Walehwa, associate director of residential life, the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) and the students have worked together to pick up the pieces.
“This flash flood was an unexpected occurrence that was the fault of nobody,” Walehwa wrote in an e-mail to Student Life. “Our focus has been to support students through this difficult time.”
But Loop Lofts resident DeDe Alexander, a junior, said that many students who do not live in the Lofts are unaware of what happened more than a month ago.
“I felt like I lived on another plane or in a different world,” she said.
More than a month later, recovery efforts continue, but residents agree that the event has left an indelible mark on their college experiences.
“It’s definitely something I’ll remember the rest of my life,” Marks said. “It was pretty surreal waking up to that situation and having to deal with what I had to that week.”
Apartments flooded, belongings and cars destroyed
Before the flood, Alexander used her Honda Civic as a means of transportation, especially to her research job in the Psychology Building.
“I agreed to live in the Loop Lofts under the premise that I was going to have a car so it would be no problem getting to school,” Alexander said. “I’m supposed to be able to come in [to the lab] on weekends, and the shuttles don’t run that early on the weekends.”
The morning of the flood, Alexander looked out her window, reacted with shock.
“It was flooded beyond belief,” Alexander said. “Water was flowing over top of the hood. It ended up getting totaled.”
The flood destroyed dozens of more cars parked in the lot. Car owners filed insurance claims to receive compensation and get the cars towed, but totaled cars remained in the parking lot for weeks after the flood.
The flood did not damage Alexander’s apartment, but other students were not as fortunate. Floodwaters poured into the first floors of both buildings and submerged clothes, appliances and furniture.
“The water was coming right through the balcony door, and I tried to stop it, but it was pretty pointless because the outside level of water was higher,” Marks said. “I tried to put towels and furniture against [the balcony door] but nothing worked.”
“We were stranded”
With water rising in the building up to some residents’ windowsills, and the building inaccessible to cars, Alexander said the situation quickly became dire.
“We were stranded in a place without food or any safety measures. It was kind of like being alone, isolated. We had no idea if or when the waters [were] going to recede,” Alexander said.
While waiting for help to arrive, Alexander and some of her fellow residents took care of each other.
“A lot of us ended up joining together and just kind being like ‘How much food do you have? Are you going to be fine as far as water [goes]?’” she said.
There was no tap water available, Alexander said.
“We weren’t supposed to use water because the water was flooded, it was dirty and contaminated water,” she said. “We ended up having to go downstairs and unplug fridges, take all the food out of [my friend’s] fridge.”
Because the water was contaminated, residents who came into contact with the water had to receive tetanus shots.
Students, ResLife clean up
After the flood, both FrontDoor LLC, the company that owns the Lofts, and ResLife sprung into action.
“We have worked with students and FrontDoor LLC to provide continuous communication on all work being done to get their apartments in good condition,” Walehwa wrote. “University administrators have been on site to view damage involved and to monitor restoration progress.”
According to Alexander, the waters receded soon after the flood, and both FrontDoor and ResLife sent workers to the Loop Lofts to pump out the remaining water.
ResLife compensated students in full for all damages to items in the apartments, provided that affected residents filed an itemized list of goods to be replaced.
“They definitely made a point like ‘If you had textbooks damaged you need to get that in and we want to get you your textbooks without charge as soon as possible, because we don’t want your grades to suffer,’” she said.
ResLife also worked with students to give them other accommodations, including temporary South 40 housing, but Marks had to move into another apartment in the other Loop Lofts building and was displaced for three nights after the flood.
“I had to stay with friends and try to catch up on schoolwork because I had all this to deal with in my free time,” he said.
Some Loop Lofts residents have moved into other apartments, and some of the temporary South 40 residents only returned to the Loop Lofts as recently as two weeks ago, according to Marks.
Repair efforts continue in the Loop Lofts, with workers given limited key access by FrontDoor to the affected apartments. Students expressed concerns for the safety of their belongings and their privacy.
“We notified residents of work being done by staff in their apartments in accordance with how we notify residents who live in any of our residences on or off campus,” Walehwa wrote. “All students who believe they had items missing have been encouraged to file a police report with the St. Louis Police Department to investigate any theft that may have occurred.”
As repairs finish up, junior Hassan Moore formed a Facebook group in response to the floods called “Concerned Loop Lofts Residents and others.” Moore could not be reached for comment.
Mixed response to University aid
Not everyone praised the University’s response to the flooding. Some residents criticized the University for not sending representatives to the scene until 5 p.m.
“Immediately after the flood they did a horrible job,” Marks said. “There was no University presence besides our RAs there to help us.”
But according to Walehwa, administrators could not access the building until floodwaters had receded and police had cleared nearby roads.
“Fortunately, Assistant Director of Residential Life Christina Yao lives in the Loop Lofts and was on site immediately,” he wrote. “The RAs were able to notify residents within minutes of the flash flood about what was happening by knocking on doors.”
Alexander said she feels the University administration communicated well with affected residents in the first days after the flood by holding meetings, sending e-mails and sending administrators to the building, but she wishes the University could have communicated more consistently with Loop Lofts residents after that.
“[The University] did do enough to get you to shut up, but people forget about you,” she said. “I just felt kind of alone. It was like ‘We’re really concerned’ for one day, and then, ‘Whatever.”
Walehwa asserted that the University continues communication with Loop Loft residents.
“We have continued to send out updates to all affected residents on any ongoing progress,” Walehwa wrote.
ResLife will ensure that criticisms are handled by the appropriate departments, Walehwa said.
“I think students are happy with our effort, but this whole process has been very long,” Walehwa wrote. “All criticisms are listened to carefully.”
Marks admired the administration’s efforts to help students in the days after the flood.
“I think the University has made up for their initial mistakes pretty well,” Marks said.
And flash flooding is never easy to prepare for, according to Alexander.
“I’m not bashing Wash. U. There’s no way anyone could have been prepared or foreseen this happening,” Alexander said. “But I hope that this [event] helps us be more prepared for any type of emergency situation in the future and gets the campus aware that these types of things do happen.”
Correction
An article on Friday, October 31 ("Weeks later, impact of flooding still felt ") incorrectly stated that Residential Life owns the Loop Lofts apartments. Although the buildings are available exculsively through an arrangment with Residential Life, the buildings are, in fact, owned and managed by FrontDoor LLC, an independent managment company. Student Life regrets the error.
false statement