Students share stories of flooding at UCLA

Updated on July 31 at 8:50 a.m.

On Tuesday, after a water line broke on Sunset Boulevard and released millions of gallons of water into the street and onto campus, students and others took to buckets and brooms in an effort to clear what water they could from UCLA’s flooded facilities. Here, students share their narratives of where they were and what happened when Tuesday’s flooding shocked the campus.

Henry Pray, third-year business economics student

Henry Pray was at Young Research Library when the water main first broke.

He received a text from his friend about the start of the flooding, then went to check that his scooter had not washed away.

As he was moving his scooter, he went by the J.D. Morgan Center, where he saw five people in an assembly line clearing out water from the building. At the time, the water was shin-high in the Athletic Hall of Fame, he said.

“I asked if they needed help, and they said, ‘Yeah, come in,’” Pray said.

Using broom handles as squeegees and trash cans as buckets, Pray and several others worked to clear the water out of the building. Pray bucketed water for two and a half hours, but the others had been there for hours before. He said many volunteers from the J.D. Morgan Center came down to help clear the water.

“Nobody was doing anything where the offices were or anything,” Pray said. “Everybody was in the Hall of Fame, scooping all the water out.”

Pray added that plenty of athletic memorabilia in danger of taking on water was moved to higher ground.

“I’m pretty sure everyone did a pretty good job of saving it as much as you could,” Pray said. “But there’s a whole other half of Morgan Center that I have no clue what happened to.”

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Daniel De La Torre, cross country sophomore distance runner and second-year undeclared student

Daniel De La Torre said he was inside the Acosta Training Center when he was told by another student that parts of UCLA were being flooded.

“My only thought was, ‘What the hell is going on?’” De La Torre said. “And the thing that sucks the most is the track was flooded, and it was a new, renovated track.”

De La Torre said he was disappointed when he saw significant water damage to Drake Stadium, a facility where he frequently trains and competes.

“It sucks that it’s millions of dollars in damage,” De La Torre said. “A newly renovated track messed up. And there’s a lot of damage, but all that stuff can be replaced. I’m just glad there was no one hurt.”

He added that the stadium’s sand-filled jump pits and pole vault foam pits were soaked, and he thinks they’re likely beyond repair.

De La Torre said the Acosta Training Center sustained relatively little damage, with floodwaters just reaching the weight room.

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Steve O’Dell, men’s volleyball junior setter and third-year psychology student

Steve O’Dell, a sports assistant at Pauley Pavilion, was coaching a volleyball camp in Pauley Pavilion when players, coaches and campers were suddenly told to evacuate the building.

O’Dell and other counselors led the campers up the stairs to exit, only to see water seeping down the stairs toward them.

“(It was) like a waterfall down into Pauley,” O’Dell said.

The volleyball coaches then rushed the campers toward another exit and out of the gym as quickly as possible. Outside, water flooded down along Bruin Walk, reaching the John Wooden Center and the J.D. Morgan Center.

“There’s police everywhere, firefighters rushing around. Morgan Center and the Hall of Fame were completely flooded,” O’Dell said. “I went into the bottom floor of Lot 7 and there’s BMWs floating around, and water up to your nipples.”

Upon seeing the water damage to the Pauley Pavilion floor, where he plays his home UCLA volleyball matches, O’Dell said he couldn’t help but feel a sense of disappointment. He and other sports assistants stayed there to help dry their court into the night.

Even after seeing significant damage to several athletic facilities, O’Dell he said he expects an outpouring of support from the UCLA community in the coming days and weeks.

“There’s millions and millions of dollars of damage,” O’Dell said. “And we’re going to need to figure out a way to get it all back somehow and come back stronger.”

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Chandler Boyd, second-year psychology student

Chandler Boyd was working in the Office of Residential Life in Hedrick Hall when she got word that a water main had broken on Sunset Boulevard, flooding campus and compromising many UCLA Athletics buildings.

“We didn’t even know about (the flood) up at the top, on the Hill. … I got called down (to the James West Alumni Center) because they were worried that the office of the director of the Spirit Squad was going to flood and that’s where all (the dance team’s) gear is,” Boyd said.

While Boyd helped prevent further flood damage by transporting Spirit Squad equipment out of harm’s way, she observed the destruction that had already taken place as the broken main continued to fill the middle of campus with millions of gallons of water.

“There was probably a foot of water outside Pauley and a rushing waterfall down the steps into parking lot 7. People were swimming in the stairwells of parking lot 7 for fun, it was a really interesting situation,” Boyd said. “People were wading through the water to get to the other parts of campus. It was definitely an interesting experience. It was craziness.”

As a member of the dance team, Boyd is included in the many UCLA athletes now displaced, with water damage rendering their training facilities unusable.

“On Wednesdays we usually practice in Pauley so today our practice was canceled,” Boyd said. “We practice in the Wooden Center, too, and that was canceled yesterday and our workouts were canceled in Drake.”

Until the efforts to dry the affected buildings are completed or formal contingency plans are enacted, the dance team is being resourceful.

“We’re practicing outside of Kaufman (Hall) Thursday, which is in Wilson Plaza. We’re just making it work with the parts of campus that aren’t drowning.”

Compiled by Chris Kalra and Claire Fahy, Bruin senior staff.