Bayou Oaks residents relocated after first floor flooding

Residents from Bayou Oaks were relocated Saturday and Sunday to Bates Hall at the Quadrangle when the first level of the apartment units were flooded.

UH spokesman Mike Rosen said that Bayou Oaks offered for students to relocate on Saturday if flooding occurred. Rosen said four residents moved temporarily into the Quads, while 50 returned home.

Mechanical engineering senior David Babb, who lives on first floor of Bayou Oaks, said he evacuated to the Quad on Saturday around 11 p.m. when the flooding started to worsen.

“At first they announced on the intercom that the bayou was flooding at a rapid rate and could possibly overflow, and basically that’s what it did eventually,” Babb said. “Luckily we were able to get our essentials and move over to the Quads and spend the night there.”

Between 10 and 11 a.m. Sunday, all 140 residents who decided to remain overnight at Bayou Oaks were moved into Bates Hall at the Quad, Rosen said.

According to the University of Houston’s Twitter, Bayou Oaks residents were moved Sunday morning without incident, and it is the only UH-owned residential building experiencing flooding.

“It was pretty scary,” Babb said. “The water reached the first floor, almost up to the window.”

President and Chancellor Renu Khator tweeted that Bayou Oaks students who transferred to the Quads can eat in the dining facilities at no cost.

Along with the first floor of the apartment units, the parking lots near Bayou Oaks were also flooded, Babb said.

“There are also concerns of everyone’s cars — if they left it around or near Bayou Oaks — and everyone’s personal belongings, if they left them on the first floor especially,” Babb said.

Rosen said the underground Student Center Satellite flooded with a few inches of water Saturday night, and that several on-campus structures have leaks.

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