Benjamin Arsali was working on his thesis on the third floor of Marston Science Library when he heard students mumbling in the usually quiet floor.
The 24-year-old UF construction management third-year master’s student got up to find out what the noise was about when he discovered a puddle of water coming from the bathroom Sunday night.
The puddle was about 1,000 square feet, Arsali said. About six rows of bookshelves had their walkways immersed in roughly half an inch of water.
The toilets on the third floor were stuffed with toilet paper, UF spokesperson Steve Orlando said. One of the toilets continued to run and overflow, which is suspected to have caused the flood.
It is unknown what the damages are and how long the clean up will take, although staff has already started, Orlando said.
Library staff closed the third floor until further notice as of Sunday night, according to a tweet from Marston.
Videos sent to The Alligator via Twitter show water seeping outside the building and pooling around bookshelves on the third floor.
— Alexandra Olson (@OlsonProduction) September 23, 2018
An hour later Arsali saw the water streaming into the library, he and dozens of students were told to evacuate due to electrical hazards, he said. He moved to the fourth floor of the library.
— Alexandra Olson (@OlsonProduction) September 23, 2018
“Everyone was kind of freaking out, but I decided to go back to my school work,” he said. “There were definitely some people a little bit disappointed because they were doing their work and they had to relocate to a new area.”
Contact Dana Cassidy at dcassidy@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @danacassidy_
Flooding reaching the book stacks at Marston Science Library
