Quite A Splash: Heavy rains flood some parts of campus, community

• Tweet
• 

Students rushed from class to class making fruitless attempts to not get wet Tuesday.

A storm cell, which brought a thunderstorm warning and tornado watch for most of the afternoon, struck Mount Pleasant. The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids issued a high wind warning, which expires at 8 p.m. today and warns of possible 60 mile-per-hour winds.

Some students in Emmons Hall found their clothes and carpets soaked in water. Bay City senior Brad Bender found rainwater had leaked in through the window onto the floor of his dorm.

“I realized it was raining out so I decided to check on the room,” said Bender, a resident assistant for the hall’s terrace. “It is a room that has a history with flooding.”

One of Emmons Hall’s custodians eventually came by to check on some of the rooms for water damage.

“Our wonderful custodian Bill checked in,” Bender said. “He gave us some rags and vacuumed.”

Kentwood sophomore Samantha Brown lives in another room that was affected by the downpour.

“I was a little worried because my roommate texted me about it,” Brown said. “It turned out the windows were left open.”

East quad maintenance worker Bill Schafer said it seemed to be the same occurrence with each room that had been found with water.

“Some of the students have only been closing the inside part of the windows at night,” Schafer said. “The rain is still getting inside by collecting in the opening of the outside portion of the window.”

Some streets in Mount Pleasant were flooded after the storm swept through the city.

Abbey Lane, Kinney and Bennett avenues, and Bellows, Brown, Elizabeth, Michigan and Fancher streets were partially flooded during the afternoon. No streets were closed because of the rain, said Michelle Smith, assistant Streets supervisor for Public Works.