University of Houston dormitory floods, students evacuate Cougar Village 2 in middle of the night

Cyndi Schramm, Houston Chronicle

Updated 12:17 pm CDT, Tuesday, September 10, 2019

University of Houston students were unexpectedly evacuated early Tuesday morning from the Cougar Village 2 dormitory due to flooding in the first floor lobby.

The students were woken up at around 4:40 a.m. believing it was a fire drill but were soon evacuated from the building due to flooding, according to UH Spokesman Chris Stipes.

A video shared on Twitter by student Tony Alebesun shows water gushing from the ceiling to the floor and students standing outside the building.

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Stipes said the cause of the flooding was an HVAC system malfunction around 4:15 a.m.

“A fire alarm prompted approximately 40 students to evacuate as a safety precaution, but they returned to their rooms within an hour,” Stipes said.

Stipes added resident rooms were not affected as no students live on the first floor. In addition, The HVAC system was repaired by 10 a.m. and maintenance crews were working to clean up the water.

“Two elevators are currently out of service, but the other two remain operational. We will continue to update residents on the progress,” Stipes said.

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