Water restored after weekend pipe burst

This Sunday, broken piping condemned students living at Oklahoma Christian University to nearly 24 hours without running water.

John Hermes, Chief Operating Officer at Oklahoma Christian, described the incident in a statement on Monday.

“We had a 6 inch water line break that required turning off the water to the student center and the residence halls,” he said. “The cold weather and depth of the pipe slowed the repair. They were able to expose the leak at about 2:30 a.m. and complete the repair by about 10:00 a.m. All water service has been restored.”

At 12:52 p.m. Sunday, the Office of Residence life alerted students to the break via email.

“A main water line outside the branch/student center has been busted, and crews are gathering equipment to fix this problem. 

They hope to isolate the line, but water may have to be shut off, which will affect all residence halls. If so, the time frame will be around 2 p.m. today, 2/16/2025, for up to 3 hours. 

If the water is shut off or not, once the line is fixed and water is restored, you may experience cloudy or dirt particles in the water and/or air in the line. This is normal, and you’ll just need to run the water until it is clear and air has worked through the line.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as crews work quickly to fix this issue.”

Alex Scrimsher, a freshman Psychology major in Davisson Hall, woke up in the afternoon to find the water already turned off.

“I didn’t really see the email Sunday morning because I slept in. When I first saw it, they had already sent a follow-up email, and I was like, ‘Okay, can’t brush my teeth I guess.’”

According to Jeremiah Anderson, a freshman Business Administration major in Fails Hall, they did not lose water until long after the posted time.

“Ours was still on, even when they said it wouldn’t be,” he said. “Then, later—I wanna say around 7:00 ish maybe—it was off. Then it came off again and didn’t come back on.”

Residence life posted an update at 9:00 p.m, extending the estimated length for the outage.

“Unfortunately, there is not an estimated time for the water to be turned back on. 

However, additional materials, machinery, and crew members were called in and will continue to work until water is restored. 

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your continued patience.”

The evening came to an end without a way to shower, wash clothes, or even fill a water bottle.

“Here in Davisson, since we just got new working washers, not having water to use them anyways was kind of a low blow by fate,” Scrimsher said. “Personal hygiene was definitely a thing. I mean, yeah, I could brush my teeth with a bottle of water, but you can’t really shower that way.”

Students received a third update at 12:30 a.m.

“Crews continue to fix and replace water lines. They are currently working on a line that is under the Branch floor. 

We hope this is the last of the repairs needed, but work will continue until it is fixed and the water is restored to the residence halls.

A few cases of bottled water were delivered to each lobby before midnight tonight for students to use.”

Scrimsher reported he thinks the administration handled this situation well.

“There’s only so much you can do, especially when it’s freezing outside. I mean, sure you can have crews out, and they ended up calling more people whenever they needed it, but they worked overnight on that as well. I think they did everything they were able to.”

The following morning, at 8:00 p.m., Residence Life posted a final update.

“Work continued through the night and will continue this morning. Crews have found and identified what needs to be repaired and replaced.

We hope that this will finally restore water to the residence halls soon. 

The Branch is open.”

No student-facing announcement declared when water became available again, but Scrimsher estimates it to be around noon.

“It was just kind of a guess and check,” he said. “Every now and then, it would pop back on for a few minutes, but it wasn’t stable until around noon yesterday.”

Scrimsher urges his fellow students to follow Residence Life’s instructions regarding winter safeguards and drip their faucets when it gets cold to help prevent future mishaps.