KU students were evacuated from Stephenson Hall early Monday after severe storms caused a large section of brick siding along the attic to fall off, crushing an emergency staircase, and flooded the basement. No injuries were reported.
Stephenson Hall is one of the 12 scholarship halls at KU and one of four men’s halls.
Stephenson resident Cameron Sloan woke up around 2:30 a.m. after what he believes was a stick hit his window. After watching the storm for a while, he heard a loud boom.
“I honestly just thought it was thunder, like it was a pretty bad thunderstorm,” Sloan said.
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His friend, Christian Cervantes, was the one who found the rubble and notified the other residents. Cervantes, who lives on the first floor, knew right away that the boom came from his side of the building and went to look out the window.
“It was very scary at first. I thought it was like a tornado, because the winds were just howling,” Cervantes said.
This damage came after storms Sunday afternoon initially flooded the basement, forcing residents in the hall to bail out water with mop buckets, Cervantes said.
“Housing & Residence Life is working closely with Facilities Planning & Development to have outside engineers and contractors evaluate the damage to Stephenson to determine if it will be possible for students to safely return for the rest of the spring semester,” said Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, spokesperson for KU.
KU Housing janitorial staff told residents that about half of all the scholarship hall basements experienced water damage during the storms.
After the initial reports of damage around 3 a.m., KU Housing evacuated the students to the Crawford Community Center near KK Amini Hall.
Stephenson Hall can house 50 students and is estimated to have 45 residents this semester, according to Xavier Brown, a Stephenson resident. Brown said the students were split up between Pearson Scholarship Hall next door, Jayhawker Towers near Daisy Hill and Stouffer Place apartments.
Brown said students were advised to pack for 72 hours, but residents are not confident they will be returning to the hall before the end of the semester on Friday, May 15.
In addition to the damage at Stephenson Hall, heavy rainfall across Lawrence contributed to flooding concerns across campus. The National Weather Service reported between 3 and 4 inches of rain in the Lawrence area between Sunday afternoon and early Monday morning.
“Make sure everybody has a plan, knows what to do when a severe thunderstorm or tornado warning is issued for the area,” said Matt Flanagan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Topeka. “We saw flooding, so think about that, too. How could your commute or how could your livelihood be affected by flooding impacts, too? So that’s kind of sometimes a lesser thought-about hazard, but it can be pretty impactful.”
Stephenson is one of the older scholarship halls. It first opened in 1952.
“I’ve been hearing some pretty pessimistic things, myself included,” Sloan said. “Honestly, we kind of think this is probably, like, the last of Stephenson.”
Note: This post has been corrected from a previous version.
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