PAR’s convenience store Urbana South Market and dining hall flooded after a water leak on Monday afternoon. The USM was evacuated, and the PAR dining hall was closed early, according to dining hall employees.
Mari Anne Brocker Curry, director of housing information and marketing for University Housing, said University Housing was made aware of the leak, which began in a maintenance room above the dining hall, at approximately 12:45 p.m. this afternoon. Curry told The Daily Illini in an email that maintenance staff turned off the water within minutes.
“The leak has impacted a couple of serving areas within the PAR dining hall, the kitchen, some mechanical areas and the floor outside of the Urbana South Market,” Curry said. “Our goal is to return to meal service at the PAR dining hall as quickly as possible.
Curry said maintenance workers are actively trying to determine the cause of the leak, which is still unknown. Outside the USM, workers were seen using a wet-dry vacuum to remove water from a hallway.
The water leakage affected Sky Garden, one of the dining stations at the PAR dining hall. Maika Nishioka, dining hall employee, began a shift at Sky Garden just after the leak began.
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“Before I arrived (for my shift), the leaking had already started,” Nishioka said. “Five or 10 minutes into my shift, serving (food) was stopped because of the leaking.”
Nishioka said the dining hall managers and employees were doing well and expressed sympathy for students who came to PAR for lunch.
Saurabh Lohiya, who was working as a checker at the dining hall’s entrance when the pipe burst, told The DI how he found out about the water leak and detailed the initial confusion among employees and students.
“Ten or 15 minutes (into my shift), I heard someone shout that the Sky Garden needs to be shut (down) because there was a pipe burst,” Lohiya said. “I was looking into it at that time, but I couldn’t figure a lot (about) what was going on.”
Shortly after, a dining hall supervisor reported that the salad bar had to be closed due to flooding, and other stations were closed in the following minutes.
“More news came saying that all the stations are being flooded, and it’s unsanitary to eat and serve food out there,” Lohiya said. “After that, it was just chaotic because students were going out, and the dining hall student employees didn’t know what to do.”
Curry said meal plan holders were emailed regarding the situation and encouraged them to check the Illinois app for dining locations, menus and hours, as well as updates about the status of the PAR dining hall.
