Flooding closes two residence halls at Stony Brook University, forcing a housing reshuffle
Water is pumped out of Ammann Hall at Stony Brook University on Monday after storm Sunday night. Credit: Newsday/James Carbone
This story was reported by Nicholas Grasso, Bart Jones and Joie Tyrrell. It was written by Jones.
All students from two residence halls at Stony Brook University will be relocated after their dorms were badly damaged in a flash flood early Monday that took Suffolk County by surprise and caused millions of dollars in destruction across the region.
Ammann and Gray residence halls "will need extensive repairs and cannot be safely occupied," the university said on its website. Officials said they were working to relocate the students and that "you will be guaranteed housing.”
University officials did not respond to questions about how many students were displaced from the two dorms. But the same residence halls flooded in September 2021 during the remnants of Hurricane Ida, displacing nearly 400 students. It's unknown how long the two dorms will be closed.
The university also reported Tuesday that it is designating additional rooms as "temporary triples" — meaning they will house three students — a move it said will likely become permanent.
The university also is offering a $5,000 incentive for any students who will cancel their housing for the 2024-25 academic year.
“If you prefer not to stay in a temporary triple, you may choose to cancel your housing assignment by noon on Wednesday, August 21. You will receive a full housing refund, any deposit credited to your account, and a $5,000 incentive,” read the posting.
The flood caused the university to postpone student move-in days. It said those scheduled to move in Monday would now move in Thursday. Those scheduled to move in Tuesday will now move in Friday. Students also can check in on Friday, Saturday or Sunday if they prefer.
Despite the upheaval, classes are expected to start Monday on campus as scheduled, officials said.
Stony Brook has 33 residence halls with nearly 9,000 undergraduates living on campus. A total of 77% of those students who live on campus are in their first year of college, according to the school.
Some students described the ordeal of moving in — and quickly moving out.
Llivelis Beato, a sophomore studying psychology, moved into her dorm on the third floor of Gray Hall on Sunday afternoon. But about 1 a.m. Monday, she heard a knock at her door and was told to evacuate.
She was sent to East Side Dining, where she spent the night.
Beato missed a day of working the front desk at the Student Accessibility Support Center while she was forced to grab only her “essentials” from her dorm and sent to temporary housing for the evening elsewhere on campus.
Beato and her mother, Yohastany Alvarez, lugged her minifridge, a case of water and her clothes down three flights of stairs Tuesday en route to her new permanent dorm in Chavez Hall.
Beato said there were upsides: She and her mom can wheel her fridge right onto an elevator in Chavez to take it up to her new suite. Plus, “I get my own room,” Beato said. “They’re not charging me extra for the single.”
Other dorm rooms designed for two students will now house three. Incoming freshman Sophie Bakos was supposed to have one roommate and move into her dorm in O’Neill Hall on Monday, but the storm washed away her plans. She moved in Tuesday afternoon and will soon meet her two roommates.
“Everyone’s been affected negatively by what’s happening,” Bakos said, seated on a bench next to her parents, Carlos and Sandra Bakos. “Hopefully it remains temporary. But there’s not much you can do about it.”
Her parents spent a day exploring the campus and asking workers questions regarding where their daughter would stay and where they could put her stuff if she doesn’t have an on-campus home by the time they plan to head back to Chicago on Wednesday. Ultimately, they spent another night in their hotel.
“It felt like they didn’t have a plan at all,” Carlos Bakos said. “The communication was not there. … Everybody was very helpful, but they didn’t have any information from whoever was making the decisions.”
Sandra Bakos said university officials seemed to be “figuring it out as they went along.”
“It’s not like they had a plan for massive flooding the day of moving in,” she added.
