Power company credits wind for 3-hour blackout

High winds up to 40 miles per hour caused a widespread power outage on Wednesday, March 23, leaving most of Saint Louis University’s Frost Campus without power for approximately three hours and 13 minutes, according to the University’s electrical provider, Ameren UE.

According to the Assistant Director of Facilities Management Keith McCune, the substation that provides power to 21 buildings east of the Clock Tower went down at approximately 4:33 p.m. due to damage to electrical lines that triggered more equipment failure. All of these buildings were evacuated and most of them remained closed for the rest of the evening due to safety concerns.

“When we heard about the outage, we immediately started assessing what buildings had power and what backup systems were running,” McCune said. “I was in constant communication with Ameren UE.”

Ameren UE made it a priority to get the substation back up because it also provides power to some buildings in the surrounding area. According to Ameren UE Communication Executive Lisa Manzo, 3,800 customers lost power in the metropolitan St. Louis area, including parts of the Midtown area and the Central West End.

“Mother Nature came through, and we really saw the effects it can have,” Manzo said. “We worked immediately to restore the power, and we were able to get power back in a timely manner.”

The power outage quickly effected activity on campus, as students and staff were evacuated from the Busch Student Center, and fire alarms were triggered in Dubourg Hall. The St. Louis Fire Department also responded to an elevator entrapment that was reported at Fitzgerald Hall.

“Public Safety did a wonderful job, and they came to report to me, and I believe we had about four or five buildings on campus that had elevator entrapments. The Fire Department and Public Safety were going building to building trying to get folks out of the buildings,” Dean of Students Scott Smith said.

The outage affected several events on campus including the Michelle Rhee speech hosted by the Great Issues Committee and a performance of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. with Reptar at the Billiken Club, which were scheduled to be held in the Bush Student Center. The GIC event was relocated to Chaifetz Arena, and the Billiken Club cancelled its performances.

“As the power went out, we treated it as any other emergency, so we evacuated the Student Center,” BSC Manager Chris Grabau said. “We didn’t have any power, so we didn’t have any way to support the multiple events going on.”

Freshman Bryce Knepp was outside of Griesedieck Hall when the power went out.
“I was upset because I had a meeting to get to and all of my notes were inside, and they wouldn’t let me back in.”

Despite the evacuations, Facilities Services and DPSSS responded quickly to the outages.

“We felt that we handled the situation in the right manner, and it is just always nice to have those lights come back on,” McCune said.