Students at Methodist University found a new meaning to the phrase ‘dry campus’ after a water main broke in Fayetteville on the evening of Thursday Jan. 13.
The campus was going about its normal business when it suddenly and unexpectedly lost water service, following the rupture of a water transmission line at the Hoffer Water Plant. The break caused more than 50,000 customers, including Methodist University, to go completely dry.
It took some time before students were able to get any information on what happened to cause the water outage on campus. Facebook was full of queries as to where all the water went and whether or not it would soon be available. Students and staff members made calls to the Welcome Center in search of information, only to learn that nobody had any answers.
“I had just come back from dinner and was trying to brush my teeth when I found out we didn’t have any water,” said Katy Sonner, a freshman justice studies major who lives in Pearce Hall.
Within one hour of the water loss, an email was sent to the Methodist University community from the ALERTNOW system.
“Domestic water service to Methodist University campus has been interrupted,” read the email. “This outage resulted from a waterline break off campus and is affecting a significant potion of the Fayetteville area. We do not yet have an estimate for when service will be restored.”
“You really don’t know how much of a necessity water is until you have none,” said Shereece Saxton, a freshman biology major.
Water service was restored to campus after just a few hours, but the water was still unsafe to drink or wash hands in. While the majority of the Fayetteville community was being urged to boil their water, students at Methodist were being urged to use bottled water and not drink from the water fountains, because of the possibility that the water was contaminated.
“I had to use what little bit of bottled water I had to get ready for school Friday morning,” said Saxton. “It disappeared quickly.”
The campus did its best to provide bottled water to residential students who did not have kitchen access to boil water. Flats of water were put hall lobbies, and RC’s and RA’s went door to door making sure that residents knew that water was available to them. Signs were put on water fountains and tapped to dorm room doors to remind residents not to wash their hands, brush their teeth, or use the water for cooking until further notice.
The water advisory lasted through the weekend, which caused problems not only in the dorms but also in the café and other buildings on campus. The café had to boil all the water they used in food preparation throughout the weekend. The café had to make large containers of lemonade and fruit punch for students to drink, as the fountain drink machines were shut down.
After a slew of emails to students and staff members, the last advisory email was sent out just after 7 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 16.
“The Fayetteville Public Works Commission (PWC) has announced that the precautionary "Boil Water" advisory has ended,” read the email. “Tests have demonstrated that local tap water is safe for human consumption.”
“I feel like Methodist did the best it could with a situation that was beyond their control,” said Sonner about the incident. “They had bottled water for the residents and made sure to keep us updated through emails.”
Written by Jessie Heath | 
