A flood struck Fosmark House in Oak Hall Friday afternoon, leaving residents to fend off rising water in the hallway to keep their rooms dry.

At about 3:30 p.m., a water pipe on Oak’s second floor burst, creating a rush of water through Fosmark House. With the water level in the hallway at about two inches, maintenance workers were forced to cut off water to the entire Oak-Elm building.

“That was pretty crazy,” said Sarah Fletcher, Fosmark House resident assistant. “We had one woman in the shower who got caught mid-soap.”

Fletcher, senior in architecture, said water was restored to the Elm side of the building after 15 minutes, but it wasn’t until about 4:30 p.m. that Oak residents, excluding Fosmark, got their water back.

Kim Bjornson, freshman in elementary education and resident of Fosmark House, said the sinks and water fountains on the floor were working again Friday night. Showers were still without water as of Sunday morning.

The cause of the pipe bursting and the subsequent flood were undetermined Sunday night, although Fletcher said it was clear that “a pipe burst somewhere, and they just couldn’t get it stopped.”

The flood waters soaked a 60-foot stretch of the hallway carpet that was still damp hours after the flood despite maintenance workers’ attempts to dry it with dehumidifiers and wet/dry vacuums.

The flooding also wreaked havoc in the Oak-Elm Dining Center. A section of the ceiling tile was knocked down, and water was leaking onto the floor of the dining center.

Water also spilled into student rooms. Many residents took to stuffing towels under their doors to keep the flood waters out, Fletcher said.

“Actually, we had people toweling doors of residents who weren’t home,” she said.

That kind of benevolent spirit seemed to infect the whole floor during the time of crisis, Fletcher said.

“It has been really amazing to see how everyone pulled together and tackled this,” she said. “No one’s really gotten down about it. It’s so awesome how people pull together.”

Fletcher described the event as a “group-bonding type of thing.”

Bjornson agreed with her RA.

“We were just sitting in here with our door closed, and someone knocked on our door and alerted us,” she said. “At that time, there was about an inch of water, and everything was pretty hectic.”

Bjornson didn’t seem bothered by the inconvenience posed by the flood.

“I was pretty surprised,” she said, “but I really didn’t care that much.”

Kim Araya, Oak-Elm hall director, and Virginia Arthur, associate director of residence, could not be reached for comment.

Randy Alexander, director of residence, said Sunday he was unaware of the flood.