Whittier Faced With Flooding
Beginning early morning of Sunday Feb. 4, Los Angeles County experienced an unprecedented amount of rainfall — dubbed by meteorologists as an “atmospheric river” — which resulted in the catastrophic flooding of many LA County areas, including Whittier. With a combined average wind speed of 30 to 50 mph, approximately 8.72 inches of rainfall, and multiple flash flood warnings and flood advisory notices issued across Southern California, California Governor Gavin Newsom was forced to issue a State of Emergency by midday Feb. 4. Newsom advised all California residents to avoid non-essential travel during the peak of the storm on Sunday and Monday, either by vehicle or on foot.
Conversely, Whittier College issued neither a statement about the ongoing storm nor a warning about potential flooding until 10:47 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 5, when the Dean of Students office declared that their office would work remotely after they experienced flooding.
At 5:06 p.m. on Monday, Whittier College addressed the community in regards to the flooding, stating, “Due to anticipated continued heavy rain in our region overnight and into Tuesday, February 6, Whittier College will pivot to remote classes tomorrow […] The campus will remain open and operational, including dining services, library, and housing.”
Although in-person classes resumed on Wednesday, Feb. 6, the rainfall that swept down into the basement of Hoover forced a majority of the classes originally located there to relocate elsewhere. Flooding in the basement of Hoover is not an uncommon occurrence due to the location of stairs leading directly down into the basement from the outside. The College has made attempts to combat the near-constant flooding of the Hoover basement by installing a blockade of sandbags around the perimeter of the stairway entrance and right in front of the double doors.
These preventive measures, however, have not proven to be effective. In the aftermath of the flooding, centrifugal fans were placed at the entrance of the basement and in the preceding hallway to encourage air circulation and dry the carpets.
As of now, the blockade of sandbags that were installed around the perimeter of the stairway entrance have since been removed.
Turner Residence Hall also experienced flooding in the laundry room due to a ceiling leak. Residential Life issued a warning to all Turner residents via email: “There is a ceiling leak near the laundry room. The floor is flooded; please do not go into the laundry unless you absolutely have to, the floor is very slippery.” A follow-up email regarding the resolution of the ceiling leak, however, was not issued.
Paige Meyer-Draffen, Co-Manager of KPOET Radio, commented on the how the flooding that occurred in the lower campus courtyard affected the KPOET office, “It stank, and truly — shoutout to Facilities for getting on it, but it did linger for a few days because […] KPOET has no ventilation. There’s no windows that open; there’s one door, so we had to keep the door cracked and use a box fan to air it out […] That was pretty rough.”
NBC News reported that California is expected to experience another stormy week as two atmospheric rivers hit Northern California on Friday, Feb. 16, and Southern California on Sunday, Feb. 18, respectively. Flood watches in Southern California will go into effect from Sunday evening until Wednesday.
As of now, the College has not shared an action plan in the event of further flooding. The Quaker Campus reached out to the College’s Facilities team in regards to how they plan on combating future heavy rainfall, but — as of yet — have not received an answer.
Photo courtesy Sarah Licon / Quaker Campus
