Elmhurst University experiences two-day long power outage impacting residential halls

What began as a partial power outage on March 26, turned into a two-day long campus-wide outage resolved on Monday evening, March 28, restoring power for students.

Dinkmeyer Hall, the last hall to be left without power, had its functionality restored at 5:10 p.m. Monday. 

The outages left academic and residential halls without power or heat, prompting Elmhurst University to turn on emergency generators. Some of the impacted buildings were West Hall, Dinkmeyer Hall, and Stanger Hall. 

The outages resulted from construction work being done by contractors on campus.

“The power outage we are experiencing was caused by a local natural gas company when they hit a high voltage power line that is underground,” said one of the email updates from EU.

Since it began as a partial outage, students in the non-affected buildings did not pay it much mind at first until it spread to other residential halls. 

“I didn’t think much of it [the power outage in West Hall] until I came home Saturday evening to discover that my dorm had been out of power the entire day too,” said Stanger Hall resident, Beatrice Harbaugh. “I had to throw out $100 worth of groceries.”

EU did claim in an email update sent late Saturday night that heating in the affected buildings was working, however, Harbaugh said her dorm was cold all through Sunday.

“By Sunday afternoon it was just so cold. I had to unpack my winter clothes and put on fleece pants and two sweatshirts to go to bed. And when I woke up this morning, my dorm was the same temperature as it was outside,” said Harbaugh. 

Concerns about perishable goods and floods were common amongst students in dorm halls. 

“My main concern was my refrigerator as it would defrost and flood my room,” said Schick Hall resident Brandon Cipolla in an email to the Leader. “Luckily, the power came back yesterday [in Schick Hall] around 5:30 p.m. and came back to make sure everything my room wasn’t flood. However, my refrigerator did flood with water and took a little to clean up.”

EU kept the locker rooms in the fitness center open late for students to take hot showers.