If you thought sharing a bathroom with strangers was bad enough, think again.
A student who attends Marshall University says that she woke up at 5 am to her dorm flooding due to a plumbing “explosion” in the bathroom.
The video was posted to TikTok by user Lillian Grace (@lilliangrace597). By Monday, it had amassed over 28.3 million views.
@lilliangrace597 Imagine waking up to your dorm floor flooding ag 5 am BECAUSE OF A TOILET EXPLOSION #marshalluniversity #dormlife ♬ original sound – Lillian Grace346
“Imagine waking up to your dorm floor flooding [at] 5 am BECAUSE OF A TOILET EXPLOSION,” the caption wrote.
The eight-second clip shows a massive spray of water gushing from the toilet toward the ceiling and all over the ground, including the hallway. At one point, the trashcan in the bathroom floats away.
In the comments, viewers cracked jokes about the toilet explosion.
“Woah ur school has a bidet???” this user quipped.
“Imagine u were sitting on it when it happened,” another wrote.
The official TikTok account for Bounty Paper Towels also joined the chat. “Who is responsible and what did they eat to cause this,” they wrote.
Another observed how the flooding reminds them of scenes from the 1997 movie, Titanic, in which the boat begins to fill with water as it sinks. “This looks like a scene from titanic,” they commented.
In response for countless demands for an update on the situation, Grace posted two follow up videos.
@lilliangrace597 Poopy paradise update! #marshalluniversity #dormlife ♬ original sound – Lillian Grace346
In the first follow up, she began by explaining that a friend’s visitor used the bathroom at around 5 am. When he flushed, a piece “flew off the toilet” and the water started gushing out. This led to the friend pounding at Grace’s door, to alert her about the flooding.
“She’s like, our floor is actively flooding,’” Grace recalled. After getting her cats in their carriers, Grace put on her shoes and went to inspect the damage. That’s when she saw “Titanic mode” on their floor.
When she returned from dropping the cats off at a friend’s house, the lobby of the dorm building, called Twin Towers, was completely flooded, having received the brunt of the damage. “The water came through the elevators, came through the floors, like, tiles were falling,” she said.
Luckily, Grace’s room was the only room that didn’t get any water in it. The same couldn’t be said for the other rooms. “Their rugs were ruined and everything,” she said.
She explained that the clean-up process was difficult due to the amount of water. Maintenance had to prioritize vacuuming up water, and putting dehumidifiers in the rooms that received the worst of the flooding.
In the video, she showed the state of the hallway where all the fans and dehumidifiers were.
Grace ended her video by claiming that none of the residents were reimbursed for the damage to their personal belongings. Instead, they recommended that residents with damaged items seek out the on-campus thrift store.
“They talked about if we have renter’s insurance and, um, like gave us time for food pantry and told us about the thrift store on campus,” she explained.
Marshall University responded to the Daily Dot’s request for comment. Their statement reads: “Housing and Residence Life (HRL) personnel were notified around 6 a.m. (Oct. 31) of a break in a line. The break caused two inches of standing water on the second floor of Twin Towers West, impacting 21 residents and the first-floor professional staff apartment. Staff responded swiftly, and the university’s Office of Health and Safety contacted a local company to assist with the water extraction.
All affected residents were notified by email of resources they could access if needed, from class excuses to directions on how to claim damages.”
Many commenters felt horrible for the people who had their items ruined. “It’s making me so anxious thinking about all of the things that got destroyed that were on people’s floors/low to the ground,” one wrote.
Another encouraged the ones who have renter’s insurance to file a claim.
The Daily Dot contacted Grace via TikTok comment.
