UConn’s East Campus lost power at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday due to a downed wire along Route 195. (File photo/The Daily Campus)
A downed wire along Route 195 caused the power to shut down at the University of Connecticut’s East Campus dormitories around 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Generators in the residence halls quickly turned on to counteract the power outage, however, it did not reach all areas of the buildings, according to residents in Whitney Hall.
Some students got power back quickly due to a built-in redundancy that caused those students to be connected to another part of the electrical grid, while others had to wait for the repairs, UConn Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said.
“Fortunately, UConn Facilities and Eversource have a great team and work cohesively on such emergencies, helping limit their frequency and duration,” Reitz said.
The team on Route 195, which included Facilities Operations and Building Services, a fire truck and a police officer to block off the junction between Gurleyville Road and Horsebarn Hill Road with Storrs Road, fixed the problem after receiving a report of the downed line just after 12 p.m.
The power was restored to all of East Campus by 1:15 p.m. according to Eversource.
Some students found this to be a small inconvenience, unfazed since the same occurrence had happened a couple times last fall semester. Those in Whitney Dining Hall simply ignored it with the expectation that the generator would turn on.
Sixth-semester electrical engineering major Lexi Zavaglia said she was in the dining hall with a couple friends when the power went out, but the generator resolved the issue immediately.
“It was a minor inconvenience,” Zavaglia said. “Since the wi-fi was out, the only issue was that homework had to wait, but it was nothing serious.”
Other students were slightly more concerned.
“I was glad that the university had generators set up in case of any power outages, but I think it’s strange that they supplied power to some of the rooms and not others,” Jane Eklund, a sixth-semester English and French double major, said.
Eklund expressed concern over the situation in different circumstances, stating a power outage would not be a valid excuse to offer professors for students who could not leave on time for class because of it, when other students weren’t affected.
Eklund said she also wondered why the wires were down at all, noting that it wasn’t windy out that morning.
The line fell due to an equipment issue, according to Eversource.
* In the “East Campus Faces Short Power Outage Over the Weekend” article, published on Jan. 2, there was no explanation for why there was a downed wire and no specific time for the restoration of East Campus’ power due to a failure to speak with Eversource before the publication of the article. The corrections have been made in the current article.
Daniela Doncel is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at daniela.doncel@uconn.edu.
