UMES experiences “unnatural” amount of flooding

Those entering the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Thursday morning were greeted by campus police with the news that the campus was closed because flooding had resulted in over half of the university losing power.

Those like volleyball players Marta Klafuric and Kirstin Fink  though were glad to hear the news.

“We asked officer what’s happening he said the class is cancelled, so we were happy,” Klafuric said.

Neither had any idea  of what was going on on campus, where water from two nearby creeks had claimed what used to be parking lots, roadways and grassy areas. The water even found its way into the basement of Kiah Hall, water flooding through the basement doors.

“We had a great deal of rain, we’ve heard reports as much as nine inches of rain overnight our campus is ringed by two tidal creeks that hit high tide, so a combination of those two activities cause the water to rise unnaturally here and shorted out a number of our electric systems,” Robinson said.

Officials said as of Thursday afternoon, power had been restored to a majority of campus.