Since about 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the Eliot House internal e-mail list was awash with messages from irate students.

Joe S. Bell ’03 wrote, “I don’t mean to beat a cold wet horse, but does anyone else have hot water yet? It’s been a solid 36 hours now without it. I feel like if there’s more of a delay in student showering, already spotty at Harvard, we’ll have to rename Eliot House to Smell-iot House.… Is there something we need to do to get hot water? Did I not pay some bill?”

While a few students have opted not to shower, some students chose to make the trek to the N-entryway, where the hot water supply was not interrupted. That entryway is connected to the same plumbing system as the Master’s Residence, which obtains its hot water through a different source.

Other students came up with more creative options. In his post to the Eliot e-mail list, Bell wrote, “I for one am sponge-bathing with the water from a contraband coffee maker. I’ll be out in the courtyard with a hose if any of you have really stinky roommates.”

Bell told The Crimson, “I don’t normally shower, so it hasn’t really affected my life all that much. But my roommates reek up the high heavens when they don’t shower.”

A few brave students bit the bullet and withstood the subzero temperatures in favor of personal hygiene.

Yakov Golorgorsky ’03 said “It wasn’t comfortable…[it was] the most uncomfortable shower I’ve ever taken.”