Noah’s ark-making abilities would have been useful this weekend, as the University’s own Activities and Recreation Center flooded after the heavy rains on Sunday.

The flooding, which closed the ARC’s lowest level and the climbing wall, was caused by clogged debris in the sewer system service drive connecting the fitness facility with the north stands of Memorial Stadium, said Erik Riha, assistant director of marketing for Campus Recreation.

“There’s not a whole lot you can do for debris coming down besides watching it,” Riha said. “That was the problem; when it started raining really heavy, no one was watching it so we didn’t get it ahead of time before anything happened.”

Riha said water leaked through the back doors by the climbing wall and continued through holes designated for electrical outlets.

The rubber flooring under the climbing wall was removed and is being sanitized and dried.

Though there has been flooding in the ARC in the past, Riha said this incident is unrelated.

“It was fixed, and we haven’t had any problems (since),” he said. “This was debris clogging up all the drains, so once we figured out what was going on, they got all of the debris out of there and all the water started draining,” he said.

Students who came in Sunday to use the climbing facilities or the ARC’s lowest level were told about the closures upon entering.

“We came here and all of a sudden they told us it was closed downstairs so we went up and played basketball,” said Jeremy Mandell, freshman in ACES. “I was crying for like five minutes.”

Mandell and his friends returned to the weight room Monday, as it reopened at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Riha said the climbing wall will possibly stay closed until Wednesday.

The only remaining evidence from the flood includes mops, a few fans and the absence of furniture near the climbing wall, which will be removed until they replace the flooring.

“They did a really good job of cleaning everything up and making sure the fire alarm system was working and everything,” said Yazmine Howard, sophomore in LAS and a Campus Recreation employee, who was working during the flooding.

Howard said she hopes that next time the rain won’t take ARC employees by surprise.

“I guess it was just so much rain in one quick moment,” she said. “We’re hoping that it doesn’t happen again; hopefully, they fixed whatever problem they had to fix.”