Out of her second floor window, freshman Mia Nance saw the river flowing outside Avery Residence Hall.

She grabbed her notebook of short stories. Her laptop. Her cellphone.

And her rainboots.

Nance was one of about 100 people lining Ridge Road on Thursday night after a water main broke at about 10 p.m., requiring an evacuation of Avery.

With bricks littering the streets and water flooding the dormitory’s basement, students were left in the dark about when they would be permitted to reenter the dormitory. Water ceased to gush from the ground just after 11:45 p.m.

As of 12:30 a.m. on Friday, students were advised by Matt Knickman, the community director on-call, to find alternative housing for the night. He told students that they would receive hourly updates through the night on the timetable for returning to their rooms and that an announcement would be posted on the door of the Parker Residence Hall game room as soon as the dormitory was reopened.

“What we know is we don’t know if we can get everyone in the facility yet,” Knickman told students crowded inside the game room across the street. “You may want to try to find somewhere else to stay tonight.”

UNC Department of Public Safety officers closed traffic on the segment of Ridge Road spanning from Avery to Boshamer Stadium for more than one hour. Knickman cautioned students against lingering on the road after receiving notification that the street would be reopened to traffic shortly after 12:30 a.m.

Officials from Orange Water and Sewer Authority arrived on-scene to fix the water main and conduct water tests. For water to be turned on, water has to be tested and deemed free of contaminants, said OWASA line mechanic Jason Thomas.

Thomas said the water might not be able to be turned on again until as late as 8 a.m., as workers test the stability of the ground, repair the broken pipe and receive test results from the OWASA laboratory, which is available 24 hours per day.

“We have people on standby always,” he said, noting the danger of the ground collapsing on top of workers.

Thomas added that contaminants rarely appear, though fertilizers and other substances in the ground necessitate testing.

Donning pajamas, several students offered free beds and air mattresses in their rooms. Community directors offered the displaced Avery students access to bathrooms in Teague and Parker residence halls.

“I might have to call my parents and wake them up,” said sophomore Carley Brown, of Chapel Hill. “I might take a few with me, a few lucky ones.”