‘It’s past my knees basically’: Flooding at SSU dorm

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — There was flooding around Chatham County throughout the day Thursday, including at Savannah State University (SSU), where several students had water up to their doorsteps.

"My car is literally around this corner, and it's literally underwater," Gabryelle Banks, a student at SSU, said.

Knee-deep flood water filled almost the entire University Commons on-campus housing complex.

"Like it's really, really bad. It's past my knees basically," Nia King, another SSU student, said.

Some students braved the water to try and get out of the complex, but others said they wouldn't risk it.

"We're trapped. We can't go anywhere. They keep saying, "Oh, do you want to leave?" No, we can't," Banks and Tiekhia Butler, also a student, said. "I'm not leaving from here. Then they wanna take us to U. Why would I want to go to the U and be stranded for? It's nothing up there. Nothing."

Savannah State confirmed to News 3 that they had been in communication via email with students and offered for them to be picked up and taken to another location on campus.

Many students, though, wondered why they weren't given advance notice about the possible flooding.

"We didn't get a notification until 12, but I looked on the weather map, and it was raining all night. So, it's like, nothing was told throughout the night like 'hey, there might be flooding, move your cars.' nothing was told to nobody," King said.

"It's distressing. A lot of students are very sad. I've seen some tears. It's just really sad. It's not even the whole campus, which is also bad too. I mean it's good that it's not everybody, but us, we've been affected really bad," SSU student Brooklyn Clay said.

Clay says her car was filled up with water, and she couldn't get to it to do anything about it.

She wasn't the only one.

"They're saying they can't do nothing about it, but y'all clearly not trying to unclog the sewers. That's why we're here. That's why it's flooded over here," Banks and Butler said.

The university said that they were monitoring the situation and had provided students with information about the flash flooding from the City of Savannah.

For the rest of the city, most of the flooding was cleared by the evening.