Published: Sept. 12, 2013

The University of Colorado Boulder will remain closed through Friday as rain continues to fall and more storms are expected through tomorrow.

With the current weather conditions and the continuing possibility of flash flooding, the evacuations of the Faculty/Staff housing unit, Athens Court and the ground floor of Newton Court will remain in place. The evacuation has impacted 220 units and 355 family housing residents.

“With the weather conditions continuing to be unpredictable, we’re going to exercise caution and keep the current evacuation in place,” said Chancellor Philip DiStefano. “This will be revisited again on Friday as early as we can make a determination that the units are safe.”

Dozens of staff members from across the campus, including housing, facilities management and public safety, have been working since Wednesday evening to restore and preserve campus facilities.

“I want to assure parents and others that we have not had any reports of missing students or serious injuries,” said Louise Vale, Vice Chancellor for Administration. “The majority of our campus is well above the flood plain and is not at risk of flash flooding. We want to make sure the buildings are safe before we open them.”

The current assessment is that 25 percent of campus buildings have some form of water damage, including seepage in basements. Contractors have been brought in to pump out water from the basements of Fleming, Norlin and Electrical Engineering.

Residence halls with flooding damage on the ground floor include a few units in Reed, Crosman and Cockerell Halls. The 21 affected residents have been relocated to other campus units.

All events on Thursday have been cancelled and many will be cancelled Friday as well, including the Pearl Street Stampede. Ralphie’s Corral prior to the Saturday football game has also been cancelled. However, the football game against Fresno State will be played as scheduled with a kickoff at 12:07 p.m. The grass lots on campus are expected to be closed, which will cause fans with permits in those lots to relocate to their secondary lots. Updates to this situation will be available during Saturday’s pregame broadcast on AM 850 KOA at 10 a.m.