Power Failure Blackens River Houses, K-School

A power failure at 12:30 p.m. yesterday blacked out parts of at least four River Houses, the Central Kitchen, and the Kennedy School of Government, and stopped elevators and equipment systems in Holyoke Center.

Power was restored within 30 minutes to Holyoke Center and the K-School, said Robert Saltonstall director of facilities and maintenance McKinlock Hall in Leverett House, Mather House's 19-story tower and Winthrop House's Gore Hall all got electricity back within two hours.

But residents of Eliot House, where the power failure began, were forced to eat dinner in other Houses, and tutorial and section meetings were shifted to alternative location. Power to students' rooms in Eliot was not finally restored until 11:45 p.m. However, the emergency backup system--which provides minimal exit route lighting--was brought back up just before 6 p.m.

Saltonstall said the failure occurred when Facilities and Maintenance (F&M) workers preparing to turn on the University's steam heating system inadvertently flooded the electrical vault in the basement of Eliot House.

According to Saltonstall, the pipes leaked and flooded into the vault because while Eliot was being renovated this summer, workers out the pipes to install new electrical equipment. However, the workers neglected to recap the pipes.

Once the flooding was detected, technicians were forced to shut down the electrical transformer which supplies Eliot with power, said Herman C. Carlson, senior electrical engineer in the facilities and maintenance department. And in order to shut off effectively the electricity supplying Eliot, they had to shut off lines affecting other buildings as well, Saltonstall said.

It took almost 12 hours to restore power to Eliot because the electrical vault had to be fully surveyed, but workmen at Eliot House declined comment early today on the extent of damage to the vault.

At 6 p.m. yesterday, Carlson said that the damage in the vault appeared "relatively minor", but facilities and maintenance still called in a testing company to inspect Eliot House's primary electrical system, the outlets serving student rooms.

For many students, because it started during lunch hours, the blackout meant fumbling with the salad bar. However, Benjamin Walcott, assistant director of food services, said, "We were able to limp through. Fortunately it was a soup and sandwich day." Walcott added, "We were able to feed everybody"--but they were unable to serve any more fried cauliflower once the outage began.

Most Eliot residents interviewed said that the blackout was annoying, but a minor inconveniece. Some, however, said it was another in a string of inconveniences caused by renovation of the House. Marjana Martinic '86 and Clarissa Cerda '86 said they just received electricity in their bedrooms and bathroom last week.

Others waxed philosophical. "It's not a lot of fun," said Rachel Leheny '85, but "I think it's providence saying I should eat out."