Air conditioning, water affected until Sunday
Buildings in the south, west and central areas of campus, including the Russell House, lost power for about three hours Saturday morning. Thomas Cooper Library remained closed until 10 a.m. Sunday due to the outage.
Power was lost around 8 a.m. Saturday, according to a Carolina Alert. It was restored around 11:30 a.m., though air conditioning and “chilled water service” remained impacted in certain residence halls and the Russell House until late Sunday afternoon.
Russell House’s doors were propped open to alleviate the stuffiness inside on an otherwise cool evening.
Power was also intentionally shut off in certain buildings on campus around 2:30 p.m. Sunday for repairs.
By about 4:30 p.m., air conditioning and chilled water service was restored to all buildings impacted by Saturday morning’s outage, university spokesman Wes Hickman said.
“A brief interruption in power is expected once repairs are complete and all systems are brought back online,” Hickman said.
Buildings did not immediately cool; when the air conditioning is out in a building for an extended period of time, the cooling process can take several hours, Hickman said.
Hickman did not say why the outage occurred.