The University lost power for more than two hours Wednesday afternoon, suffering clogged traffic, safety hazards and the cancellation of evening classes. At about 4:15 p.m. an Entergy transmitter failed, knocking out power to much of southern Baton Rouge including downtown and areas surrounding campus. “This was a major outage on Entergy’s system,” said Lake Hebert, executive director of University Facility and Utility Operations. Bill Benedetto, Entergy spokesperson, said the outage, which affected 21,000 customers, was caused by an equipment failure at a station that serves four additional stations. At 9 p.m. about 2,000 customers in the Tiger Land area remained without power. Benedetto said Entergy expected power to be restored in the area by 10 p.m. The first signs of problems arose around 3:35 p.m. when stores along Burbank Drive and apartments on Brightside Drive began to lose power. The outages rolled through parts of Baton Rouge until about 4:15 p.m. when the outages became widespread. The outage was compounded when the University power station – which provides 50 percent of campus power – shut down, removing the ability for campus to produce its own power. Michael Ruffner, vice chancellor for communications and university relations, said the decision to cancel classes was made because of the lack of power and the traffic problems. Because the outage occurred around peak traffic times when many students and employees were leaving campus, Adams said the outage snarled traffic coming into and leaving campus. “The biggest issue was it couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” LSUPD Chief Ricky Adams said. A four vehicle accident occurred at the intersection of East Parker Drive and Highland Road. Adams said he could not confirm whether the outage contributed to the wreck, but the light at the intersection was out when it occurred. By 5 p.m., traffic had come to a complete stop across campus. There were several other motor vehicle accidents reported on campus during the outage. Adams also said several cars stalled in the street after being stuck in traffic. Officers were stationed at intersections to direct traffic. The outage also left several students stuck in elevators in Evangeline Hall, a problem Adams said affected buildings throughout the city. A University Facility Services employee fell down a staircase in the Life Sciences Building. Medical emergency vehicles responded to the accident. On the other side of campus, Adesola Ogun, geology freshman, also became aware of the outage. He was using an ATM outside the Union when the power cut out. Ogun remained outside the machine for the duration of the outage, concerned that when the power returned someone could steal his card. “I have other means of funds, thank God, but I need my card too,” Ogun said. “I called the bank, and they said I may have to just get a new card tomorrow.” Vincent Carnovale, mass communication senior, was working on a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation due at noon today in Middleton Library when the power failed. He spent the outage looking for a place to complete his assignment before the due date. “About five minutes after power went out, they started kicking us out,” Carnovale said. “They were all looking around panicking. I thought there was a bomb in there.” Michael Waller, library and information science graduate student, went to Middleton Library looking for a place with electricity when the power in his apartment blacked out. “I rode my bike here,” Waller said. “It was dangerous crossing at the intersections because people don’t realize that it turns into a four-way stop. It was jammed packed. People were freaking out.” The outage also disabled the University’s power station, which manufactures 50 percent of campus power. The station was used to power the University during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Blake said when Entergy lost power it also disabled the campus power station. Because of the design of the campus station, University employees had a five-minute window to restart the campus power station, a process which included reconfiguring safety settings. Power station workers were unable to restart the campus station, Hebert said. If the generator had been started in time, Facility Services would have been able to provide power to “critical” buildings on campus, those used for classes. But because the outage occurred so abruptly, all power to campus was lost, Hebert said. Facility Services was forced to wait until Entergy restored power to campus. The University was powered by 100 percent Entergy power once power was restored. Hebert said he expected the campus station to be restored Wednesday night, returning the University’s Entergy power usage again to 50 percent. Ginger Gibson, Rebekah Allen, Leah Squares, Caroline Alexander, Krysten Oliphant, Erin Parker and Elizabeth Miller contributed to this report.
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