Quincyites Toilet-less

Residents of New Quincy experienced a slice of rustic life last Thursday when a pipe burst and some 250 undergraduates were asked not to use running water for more than four hours.

Junior and senior Quincyites, many of whom live in the House’s newer and larger building, and the resident tutors received an e-mail from Assistant to the Master Larry J. Peterson shortly before 6 p.m. on Feb. 8.

The e-mail, with the subject line “URGENT,” announced “major pipe back-up problems” and urged residents not to “flush your toilet until it is announced otherwise.”

According to Quincy House Building Manager Ronald W. Levesque, a blockage in Quincy’s pipe system had existed for months. But it was unlikely to be detected until it ultimately backed up to the point of flooding, which happened Thursday evening.

“The tub in the room backed up, and it overflowed and ran down the walls into the House Office,” Levesque said.

Water also flowed into the house gym and the Bullitt Room, a classroom in Quincy.

While the plumbers were working to unclog the blockage, students were told not to use their bathrooms, for fear that their flushed or drained water would travel down the pipes and soak the workers trying to fix the system.

“We wanted to go on the side of caution,” Levesque said. “We just didn’t want toilets and tubs and sinks to be used by the students.”

Quincy resident Shira R. Brettman ’07 said that many people simply left Quincy for the duration of the disruption.

“I don’t think people were that affected by it,” Brettman said. “I mean it kind of sucked not being able to use my toilet.”

Levesque said that the toilets in the New Quincy lobby were available for students to use and that house residents were informed on the progress of the situation every half hour or so.

After the plumbing system was fixed around 11 p.m., students did not receive an e-mail notifying them of the good news.

“They made an announcement on an intercom that I didn’t even know we had,” said Brettman.

According to Levesque, the intercom is part of the fire-alarm system and connects to all the suites in New Quincy. He used it to let students know what was going on throughout the night.

“It was the first time I tried it out,” he said, noting that the system worked well.

Since the flooding, repairs have been made to parts of the rooms that were damaged, including carpeting and ceiling tiles. A water back-up is unlikely to happen again, Levesque said, and is not an inherent problem with the plumbing in Quincy.

—Staff writer Victoria B. Kabak can be reached at vkabak@fas.harvard.edu.