Power outage across campus leaves students in dark

Only two weeks ago the northeastern United States experienced the country's worst-ever power outage.\nAlthough it wasn't nearly as severe, Bloomington also found itself in the dark Saturday. \nPower went out in areas of downtown Bloomington and across campus beginning at 4:47 p.m. The Main Library and Assembly Hall, as well as residents of Briscoe Quad, McNutt Quad, Foster Quad, Eigenmann Hall, Tulip Tree Apartments and Campus View Apartments found themselves without power. \nThe outage began on the city's west side. A ground line was severed and made contact with the power line conductor, causing a widespread power loss, according to Cinergy, the local energy company.\nElevators in Eigenmann as well as Briscoe lost power between floors. One resident was trapped in a Tulip Tree elevator. She waited until the power returned, passing the time by doing homework.\nFreshman Lindsey Manck, a Briscoe resident, said she had to wait for nearly an hour before she could re-enter her dorm.\n"Some people were complaining, but it really wasn't that bad," Manck said. "It was quite the experience for the first week of school, although it does make me uneasy to ride in the elevators."\nTulip Tree housing assistant Debra Gentry handed out flashlights to her residents after the blackout.\n"I think we dealt with it efficiently and it got everyone accommodated right away," she said.\nThe outage forced at least one dorm to evacuate and set off at least 100 computer-activated building and fire alarms across campus.\nThe outage caused confusion and mild panic among some residents.\n"I yelled at my roommate because I thought he was turning out the lights," said freshman and Briscoe resident Justin Kornmann.\nResidential Programs and Services Director of Facilities Larry Isom said power was out for nearly 50 minutes.\n"We had people here working. We got our people with radios and sent them out to the building to assure people everything was alright and the power was coming back," Isom said.\nIsom was told via cell phone the problem was caused when a 69 kilovolt main feed operated by Cinergy went out. Cinergy switched power to a backup line while it tried to determine where the problem was. \nIU Police Department dispatch immediately notified the Control Center at the Physical Plant upon being advised people were trapped in the elevators, IUPD Shift Commander Sgt. Don Schmuhl said. Off-duty rescue workers were then sent out to rescue those who were trapped. RPS was notified and sent out emergency personnel to assist at the dorms where power was known to be effected. \nBriscoe was evacuated because of a smell of smoke in the lobby. Investigation showed that the smell was steam produced from complications of the power outage. \nAllan McBride, a communications officer for IUPD, said the department received numerous calls, including alarms, 911 calls from nervous students and calls about people stuck in elevators. \nThe outage caused city traffic lights along College Avenue to lose power. \nMarty Dickey, a maintenance substation supervisor for Cinergy supervised the repairs.\n"All the substations in town are fed from two different substations," Dickey said. "When we lost the original power source we were able to restore service very quickly because we had a feed from another power source."\n-- Contact Senior writer Mitch Blacher at mblacher@indiana.edu. Contact staff writer Brandon Morley at bmorley@indiana.edu.