South Campus to lose power for several hours Wednesday night
UPDATED: March 9, 2011, 6:00 p.m.
Power in several buildings on South Campus and the surrounding neighborhood is expected to go out Wednesday evening around 9 p.m. due to repairs that need to be made to a washed out National Grid pole.
Buildings that are expected to lose power include: multiple buildings in the Slocum Heights, all three SkyHalls, Goldstein Student Center, Tennity Ice rink, Skytop Office Building and the Inn Complete. Heat may also be shut off.
Power is expected to be shut off at 9 p.m., according to an SU News Update text sent to students. National Grid spokesman Stephen Brady said it is unclear how long or how many people the outage will affect, Brady said. The pole in need of work, located on a steep incline on Ainsely Drive, is essentially being held up by a set of circuit wires, Brady said.
The outage was originally expected to start at 6 p.m.
It is recommended residents turn off desktop computers or any sensitive electrical or electronic equipment prior to the outage, according to the e-mail sent to students. Those on South are encouraged to not use elevators during the time. Building emergency generators will be in operation, but the e-mail did not state which of the affected buildings are connected to the emergency generators.
Cole Tucker, an info desk attendant at Goldstein said those working in the student center had been notified of the outage. Additional student supervisors will be coming in Wednesday evening to deal with the outage, he said.
Goldstein will be using backup generators to run what is ‘absolutely necessary’ and using emergency lighting, Tucker said. The elevator will not be operating. Tucker said he was not sure how it would affect food services available in Goldstein.
Lights will go out, hopefully for only a few seconds, in Goldstein before the generators come back on, Tucker said.
National Grid became aware of the situation today during a routine helicopter patrol of the area, Brady said. He said it was unclear what caused the pole to wash out, although the storm earlier this week may be a cause.
Special equipment is being brought in for National Grid to repair the dangling pole, Brady said. It is possible a much taller pole needs to be set.
Check dailyorange.com for updates.
Published on March 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride
