Three finalists at Wadham have been forced to move rooms after their accomodation was struck by sudden flooding on Thursday night.
The students suffered extensive damage to their personal property after warm water started pouring into their rooms through the ceiling. Wadham’s JCR kitchen and laundry room also suffered some damage, and the college’s fire alarm system was affected by the deluge.
The exact cause of the flooding is as yet unknown. However, plumbing work was being carried out on the hot water system on the affected staircase on Thursday afternoon. The water appeared to be falling from the attic at the top of the staircase and completely soaked through two floors to reach rooms as far down as the first floor of the building.
“Water falling from the ceiling over my bed”
One of the students whose room was flooded said, “I first noticed the flooding when I heard what I thought was a tap that I had left on in my bedroom. I looked around and saw that there was a quick stream of water falling from the ceiling over my bed.
“Within half an hour, there was hot water falling from all the corners of my room. The atmosphere was like a tropical rainforest. I managed to move most of my valuables out of the room, but the people living above me, who weren’t in their rooms at the time, weren’t so lucky.
“College staff have been very apologetic, but it’s still a massive inconvenience to have to move all my stuff to a different college where I don’t know anyone and to have to get all my clothes and bedding laundered and dry-cleaned.”
Two of the students have been moved to new rooms on college premises. However, since there were no free rooms for finalists on the Wadham main site, the third has been relocated to nearby New college until the flooded rooms have been repaired.
Wadham has offered to pay damage costs and compensation to all three students whose rooms were affected.
This disruption to Wadham college life comes as building work continues all over the college, causing noisy drilling, scaffolding over the college’s front quad and a shortage of rooms for students and tutors.
