Several IU buildings without power

Deceptively deep puddles on sidewalks and a roaring Jordan River may not be the only side effects of the overnight rains.

Assistant Vice President for Facility Operations Hank Hewetson said several buildings have experienced technical problems.

These include the Psychology Building, the School of Optometry, Simon Hall, Sycamore Hall, Swain Hall, the Radio-TV Building, the Health Center, the Indiana Memorial Union, the Mellencamp building, Myers Hall and Teter and Forest Quadrangles.

The recurring power outages and surges among these buildings can set off fire alarms. 

Hewetson said Duke Energy, the company that powers IU, started seeing these buildings going offline as of 12:57 p.m.  They lost one of their three circuits, and the circuit that was lost is still being serviced.

He said his men tapped into the backup circuit available on campus, and this has likely provided energy to the buildings that lost power.

“We’ve got people scrambling,” Hewetson said.

When weather or any other unexpected occurrence causes power troubles, employees must ensure that all of the equipment has been restarted properly, Hewetson said.

Though they cannot be sure what caused so many power outages and technological troubles, Hewetson said the weather could be to blame.

“We feed our campus from two different directions,” he said.

Power troubles are most prevalent south of the psychology building, he said.

Currently, there is no definite number of buildings without power, though Hewetson said Simon Hall is still not responsive on Duke Energy’s system. 

“We think everything is back up,” he said. “More than one circuit feeds to campus.”
The company is currently working to fix the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible, Hewetson said. 

“When these things happen, we have a lot going on,” he said.    

Amanda Marino