I was talking to my wife, and all of a sudden these alarms start going off. This was, or was supposed to be, the smoke alarm. And I had assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that someone had activated the sensor of the alarm by smoking in their cell. I heard something but you kind of — I discounted it. I saw people running and it was like a lot of noise cause these alarms are very very loud.
Lo and behold, after I finished talking to Wadiya, I, you know, walked back to the back of the block [ambient noise] and I heard this rushing sound. Guys began explaining and screaming and banging on their doors because water starts falling through the sprinkler system. And before long, it was coming out of the light circuits. It was coming from everywhere, especially in a area called the dorm, where about seven or eight guys, you know, sleep in a confined area. They were banging to open the door, and before you knew it, water was just everywhere, everywhere.
Every cell on the lower half of this block got some degree of water damage. I mean, it’s just, you know, people were rushing to pick up their papers off the floor. I got some, but I didn’t get all, and a good amount of mail and stuff like that got simply destroyed. It was exciting [chuckles], but it wasn’t that in a good way. It was something to experience.
It was so much water, in fact, that water was running out of the front door of the entire block. Some guys had about four inches deep. Some more. Some people lost typewriters because they were locked in their cell and pushing the button, and the guy at the desk was a rookie, and he was kind of afraid of opening people’s doors. And it was, it was, well, it was interesting, and as I said, not in a good way. I apologize for anyone if I don’t answer their mail right quickly, because I’m still trying to sort through stuff. But it was, it was the great flood of 2014.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
