Last spring, on Jan. 7 2014, a pipe in the attic of Ruby Hall burst after arctic temperatures swept the South and froze water in what was supposed to be a dry pipe.
According to Sid Salter, chief communications officer at Mississippi State University, the resulting water damage displaced 120 students and cost the university an excess of a million dollars in total cleanup and repair. 
It is now well into the 2014-15 school year and winter approaches. Salter said MSU Housing has investigated the problem and taken steps to prevent a repeat of last year’s disaster. 
After determining the break was the result of water having collected and frozen in the pipe, Salter said the staff consulted the system supplier.
“They have a technology we can deploy to first determine if there is any water in the pipes and second to actually dry that water up so this doesn’t happen again,” Salter said.
Although the question of how exactly water ended up in what was supposed to be a pipe filled only with pressurized air remains an issue, Fred Mock, interim director of student housing said a definite answer is next to impossible to find.
“Unless you were sitting in the attic watching what happened first, you couldn’t say,” Mock said. 
What can be said is there were many reasons the water could have been there. The pipes belonged to the Ruby Hall attic’s fire suppression system. To compensate for the uninsulated pipes being exposed to cold temperatures, the pipes are filled with compressed air. If the sprinkler system is triggered, Mock said the air quickly escapes and allows the pressurized water to surge through the pipes and out of the nozzle. 
Mock said water could have been left over from system tests that they have to perform about twice a year in every building, or even simply be the result of condensation of the compressed air itself. 
Another possibility, one that Mock said he felt was most likely, is there was a low point in the pipe system that allowed water to pool up and prohibited it from exiting  the system when it would have been normally drained. 
“The building is 10 years old and wood framed,” Mock said. “Things shift around and move.” 
According to Mock, housing has already gone over the pipe system and corrected for shifts and is keeping a close eye on that in particular.
“Low pipe drains are definitely something we will pay more attention to,” Mock said. “If we are looking at another cold snap, I can send all my guys up there with levelers, and we’ll start at one end of the building and go all the way down the other.”
The reason the damage in Ruby Hall was on a larger scale than similar occurrences in the past and even that year, revolves around the fact that Ruby Hall and other newer dorms have a wooden frame construction that necessitates sprinkler systems being installed in the attics. For instance, Herbert Hall, being concrete, does not have a sprinkler system in the attic.
Salter commended housing in resolving the issue in a timely manner.
“Housing did a remarkable job in following this to its logical conclusion and making sure that there is a fix in place so we don’t have to go through this again,” Salter said.