Buildings across campus lose power

Several buildings across the University of Richmond’s campus lost power at around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 22 after one of Dominion Energy’s circuits malfunctioned.

The malfunction caused a main breaker trip on campus and a widespread power outage, Cynthia Price, associate vice president of media and public relations, wrote in an email to The Collegian.

UR Facilities employees responded to reports of power outages and all power was fully restored by 9:40 p.m., Price wrote. 

Price did not specify what caused the circuit malfunction or what buildings were affected by the power outage. 

Several students reported power outages in Tyler Haynes Commons, North Court, Lora Robins Court, the Gateway Village Apartments and the Gottwald Center for the Sciences. 

Senior Cricket Snyder was picking up food from The Cellar with a friend when she noticed the screen that displays GrubHub order numbers went black. All of THC was completely dark, but the power came back on after a few minutes, Snyder said.

“We couldn’t see anything,” Snyder said. “People were whooping and hollering in The Current because the power went out. It was a very confusing couple of minutes.”

While walking back to her apartment, Snyder noticed that the power in Lora Robins was still out and all of the street lights were out, she said.

Sophomore Emily Daniel said she was doing homework in her dorm in North Court when suddenly all of the lights went off around 8:30 p.m. 

Daniel moved to the hallway where the lights were still on to continue her homework, she said. After about 25 minutes the power came back on in North, but Daniel noticed it was very hot in her dorm because the air conditioning turned off during the outage.

Junior Greg Hughes was working on a paper in his dorm in North Court when the power went out.

Hughes also noticed the power was out in Gateway, emergency lights in hallways and that the street lights were out while he walked to the Parsons Music Library to continue his work, he said.

Junior Grace Chahal was working as a teaching assistant for a biology class in Gottwald when the power went out.

“Everything started beeping because no generator was kicking in,” Chahal said.

Chahal and the other students were unable to finish the lab because it was too dark, she said.

“We tried to continue, but couldn’t see anything,” Chahal said. “We couldn’t use our phones as flashlights because they were left outside before the lab.” 

Contact news writer Katie Castellani at katie.castellani@richmond.edu.