Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Hot Water Cut Off in Campus Residence Halls

On Sunday morning, the Office of Planning and Facilities Management cut off hot water from New South Hall, Village A, Copley Hall and Nevils with no warning in order to make an emergency repair.

Typically, with a planned outage, the administration informs residents beforehand. In this case, the water outage was unplanned, according to Vice President for Planning and Facilities Management Robin Morey.

“The outage was required to make an emergency repair,” Morey wrote in an email to The Hoya. “On Sunday morning while monitoring the campus steam system, our utilities staff observed a steam leak on the steam distribution network at the west end of New North. The leak was significant enough to require an immediate outage to make the necessary repairs. The emergency repair resulted in loss of hot water in several buildings.”

According to Morey, the problem was immediately fixed and hot water was restored to student residences by late afternoon.

“After the emergency repair was made the affected parts of the steam distribution network were re-energized and all systems were back to normal,” Morey wrote. “As usual we apologize for any inconvenience that this emergency repair may have caused.”

Some students also complained of hot water outages on Tuesday.

New South Hall Council President Alexi Potcovaru (SFS ’18) said that he expects these disturbances since they are part of residence hall living.

“I wasn’t a huge fan of my cold shower, but all of us understand that’s the nature of living in a residence hall sometimes,” Potcovaru said. “I think we were more thankful that it was restarted relatively quickly.”
Alana McGovern (COL ’18) said that the lack of warm water forced people to forego their morning shower, which resulted in some negative consequences.

“After a night out with my friends, I was really looking forward to a hot shower in the morning,” McGovern said. “It was a very unpleasant shock when I was doused in cold water. Many of my friends decided to forego the shower and New South definitely smelled a little funkier than usual.”

Yonathan Teclu (COL ’18) said he decided to take the shower, since he was unsure of when the hot water would return.

“In the beginning, I thought it was just a phase, like someone flushing the toilet or something,” Teclu said. “But when I realized the water temperature wasn’t changing, I decided to just go for it. You get used to it. Sometimes a cold shower is a nice change.”

Emily Portuguese (SFS ’18) returned to New South in the morning after a night in the emergency room, but was unable to shower.

“After spending a night in the emergency room due to a bad viral infection, I came back to New South and felt gross,” Portuguese said. “All I wanted to do was take a shower, but I had to wait hours for warm water.”

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