On Tuesday afternoon, approximately 50 percent of the core campus was plunged into relative darkness by an unexpected power outage. According to Physical Plant Director Mark Frost, the service interruption was caused by the unintentional shorting of an underground high voltage cable which supplies power to the above ground electrical substation off College Avenue near Cogswell Labs.
The outage lasted from 1:15 - 2 pm and affected the Ricketts Building, the Quad, the Union, and Russell Sage Labratory several other major buildings. The freshman hill residence halls, which receive power from lines on Burdett Avenue, were unaffected. Power was restored once Physical Plant electricians were able to determine the source of the problem and reset the appropriate circuit breakers.