Minor flooding forced the Pub to close early Tuesday night, to the frustration of patrons and staff. According to manager Victor Vogt, the Pub closed at around 11 p.m., two hours before its regular closing time, as a “precautionary measure” when staff discovered water flowing in from just outside the emergency exits.

“The announcement that was made was to ‘finish your beer and then exit,’” said Lola Thompson, a third-year in the College. “It probably hurt the Pub’s business, since it was pretty crowded up until that point.”

At first, some students were confused by the early closing. “I wasn’t entirely sure what the matter was until [a friend] informed me that he was ankle-deep in water,” said fourth-year Sara Rezvi.

Although a number of floods have been reported in the past month, the latest incident came as more of a surprise to Vogt. Whereas flooding typically has occurred during the day with minimal interference to nightly operations, Tuesday was the first time in Vogt’s recent memory that flooding forced the Pub to close.

Engineers and outside contractors are looking into the problem. “We’re still trying to narrow [the cause of flooding] down with Facilities,” said Jonathan Abuan, assistant director of Ida Noyes Hall.

Oddly, the flooding does not seem to correspond to heavy rains or snowfall, according to Vogt. “It’s a little bit inconsistent, and that’s why we don’t know,” he said. “It’s been annoying.”

Vogt said the early closure on Tuesday was unavoidable. “I apologize to the customers—it’s one of the things that goes wrong in an old building,” he said. “It’s pretty aggravating, especially on the first night of the quarter.”