 "Photo: Matthew Hashiguchi")
Residents of Baker Hall West were rudely awakened yesterday morning by extensive flooding after an explosion of a radiator on the third floor of the south campus residence hall.
"At about 9 a.m. our radiator just exploded. I was sitting right next to it and it exploded first and then started leaking water everywhere which caused all the damage," said Danny Lloyd, a freshman in pre-music who resides in Baker West. "The problem was it took them a few hours to get the water shut off."
The accident led to flooding on the floors below, said Heather Hope, a freshman in journalism.
Lloyd and his roommate, Brad Drayer, had to evacuate their room.
"We haven't gotten back into our room yet to see exactly what got damaged but it's safe to assume my roommate's extensive music collection was destroyed," Lloyd said. "My computer monitor, external hard drive, television, my roommate's stereo, his Super Nintendo system and games and a bunch of both our clothes. Pretty much anything that was close to the radiator."
Resident hall officials told Lloyd and Drayer they could move down the hall to a study room and would be allowed to live there for the remainder of the year, a solution that "would be good because it's actually pretty big, bigger than our old room," Lloyd said.
The roommates have not yet been told how Ohio State would handle replacing their damaged items, but they do expect to be fully reimbursed.
"No one said yet if they're going to pay us back through insurance or something, but I think it's safe to assume that they will pay for our ruined stuff," Lloyd said.
The icy temperatures that seemed to have caused the explosion are well below the standards for this time of year, but not quite record lows. The normal temperature falls between 38 and 21 degrees, said Jeffrey Sites, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
"The reason why it is so cold is that there is an arctic high pressure system centered over the northern plains and we have gusty, cold winds pulling the cold air down from Canada, bringing wind chills down to 10 to 20 below (zero)," Sites said.
Columbus reached its maximum warmth at about 2 p.m. yesterday when the temperature hit 11 degrees. Ohioans can expect more of the same today, as the National Weather Service is predicting a high of 14 degrees with wind chills from 7 to 17 degrees below zero.
Frigid conditions wreaked havoc throughout Central Ohio as public school districts were closed throughout Franklin County and the surrounding area.
Many students expressed their displeasure that OSU classes were in session. Some chose to remain in the comfort of their homes rather than brave the frosty temperatures.
"It's too cold out. I might die of frostbite and I don't want to walk a mile," said Claire Bing, a junior in pre-med and microbiology who decided not to make the trek to central campus from her residence at E. 16th and Indianola Avenues.
The National Weather Service issued a snow advisory for tonight, with an expected one to three inches compounding this region's weather woes. Sites recommended several techniques for students to protect themselves from dangers caused by this wintry mess.
"It's pretty much the common sense type of things," he said. "If you have to be outside you need to cover as much of your exposed area as possible, like your head and fingers with hats and scarves."
Dressing in layers acts as insulation, Sites said.
"If you're driving, maybe carry an extra blanket in the car in case of car trouble," he said.
Sites also suggested keeping an eye on pets.
"There have been studies that show that quite a few animals die of dehydration during cold weather like this because their water supply freezes," he said.
Andrew Kieta can be reached at kieta.2@osu.edu.
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