Storm floods dorms, prompts move-in day delay at Stony Brook University

The overnight thunderstorm saved its worst for Suffolk County and forced Stony Brook University early Monday to evacuate scores of students from dorms and postpone the move-in day of others.

University officials also were offering students up to $5,000 if they canceled their housing assignment for the academic year. It was unclear if the upheaval would cause a delay to the start of classes, scheduled for Aug. 26. For students set to move in Monday or Tuesday, the university asked that "you please wait for further instruction before making adjusted move-in plans."

At least four residence halls remained without power late Monday with lower-level flooding in two, said Rick Gatteau, vice president for student affairs, in a message to the Stony Brook community.

Temporary housing

The university was working to reassign dislocated students "to available spaces on-campus," Gatteau said. Stony Brook was also turning some rooms into temporary triples, he added, mainly in freshman dorms.

For some Stony Brook students — including those from out-of-state or a foreign country — who got an early jump and moved on to campus Sunday, word they would need to evacuate the now-shuttered residence halls came in the form of an overnight alert from university officials. The students were told they had to get out of their dorms because of flooding. Some said they spent the rest of a sleepless night in a dining hall.

"I feel pretty overwhelmed," said Leith Bouhaou, 19, of Virginia, on Monday afternoon as he carried a bag of his belongings over to a recreation center where students were sent, and more rain fell.

Dozens of other students also lugged bags and suitcases stuffed with belongings to the recreation center, where they were to sleep on cots.

"I didn’t sleep at all," Bouhaou said Monday night, adding that as hard as it was leaving his family for college, the dorm evacuation made it even worse.

Taking the storm in stride

A family from the state of Washington, which is known for plentiful rain, said they were trying to take the flooding and dorm relocation in stride.

Ricky Chen said he and his wife had flown across the country to drop off their daughter, a freshman. Then they had to get right back to the West Coast to bring her twin brother to college in Los Angeles.

"It’s weather. It’s unexpected," Chen said. "We don’t blame anyone."

While most of the campus was "operational" on Monday, Gatteau in his message said "the Mendelsohn community, including Ammann, Gray, Irving, and O’Neill [residence] halls, do not have power, and the lower level of Ammann and Gray experienced significant flooding."

He added that "Campus Operations and Maintenance teams are on scene and working hard assessing the damage and determining the timeline for repairs. Your safety is our top priority."

Students in temporary triple rooms will receive an approximate 15% reduction of the room rate credited to their account for the days the room was designated as a temporary triple," he said.  "If demand for campus housing remains high, the temporary triple room could remain occupied with three residents for the academic year."

The school was also offering the $5,000 cancellation "incentive" for any new or continuing undergraduate who has yet to move into their campus dorm room, Gatteau said.

Stony Brook said it was asking international and out of state students who had not yet left on their flights to come to Long Island to delay doing so.

Stony Brook University Hospital and the nearby Long Island State Veterans Home were open Monday "and operating under regular schedules with no disruption to patient care," the university said.

Howard Altschule, chief executive officer and certified consulting meteorologist for Forensic Weather Consultants in upstate Guilderland, drove to Stony Brook on Sunday from Albany with his wife, daughter and son, Andrew, 18, who is moving on campus as he starts his studies to be a physician.

They arrived Sunday and spent the night in a hotel near Stony Brook when they learned early Monday that campus move-in had been canceled. They were able to switch to another hotel and went on campus Monday, where they were able to move some of Andrew’s belongings into his dorm room.

"There is a lot of damage at Stony Brook in different halls and different places," he said. "Stony Brook is doing a nice job with cleanup and working with students and international students. The staff is working to get everything fixed and it is not an easy task."

He said his son has met other students on campus and the family is trying to make the best of it.

"Unfortunately, Altschule said, "a monumental rainstorm happened on the day that so many people were going to move into college for the first time."