Power Returning to UMBC

On Sunday night, UMBC began powering up from that knocked out the campus’ electrical system.

According to the university’s web site, UMBC is scheduled to open 11 p.m. Sunday evening.

A visit to the campus Sunday night found buildings largely dark and the 200 or so students who remained at the school during the crisis continuing to stream into Susquehanna Hall—an emergency shelter powered by a tractor-trailer-sized generator parked at the street.

“It’s been crazy,” said Perry Ogwuche, a computer science sophomore who was displaced from his Potomac Hall dorm room by the outage. “Nobody knows exactly what’s going on.”

New details have emerged about the series of events leading to the explosion, which sent a huge fireball into the sky above the campus police station and set fire to nearby grass.

According to a note posted by Lynne Schaefer, UMBC’s vice president for administration and finance, a switch at a power substation near the athletic field complex failed and caught fire.

The failure of the switch overloaded transformers at the university’s central power plant, located adjacent to the police station on the northern side of campus, causing them to explode and catch fire.

Nobody was injured by the explosion or fire.

Immediately after the incident, UMBC located and acquired a larger replacement transformer “sufficient to prevent future such outages,” officials said.

By Sunday evening, the university began powering up buildings one at a time. The Sunday evening note from UMBC officials said that most of the buildings on campus had power. However, power to residence halls and the university’s counseling and health services will likely remain out until late Monday.

Power may not be restored to the stadium, facilities management and the warehouse until Wednesday due to “serious damage to a large amount of electrical cable,” university officials said.

Some members of the university community complained about the flow of information about the incident. At 11 p.m. Thursday night, UMBC issued a text message alert notifying subscribers that the power was out on campus and crews were working to restore electricity.

A text message sent at 5:10 a.m. Friday said that UMBC was closed. Another text sent at 6:10 p.m. evening notified recipients that the university remained closed and provided a URL for more information.

“The residents living in Walker Ave apartments … were told we were being locked out of the apartments and must either leave campus or move to Susquehanna dorms,” said student Audrey Allison in a. “My roommate and I were told at 5 p.m. that we must leave by 7 p.m.”

Students were notified that anybody attempting to enter a closed dorm or apartment would be charged with trespassing.

“We received the text messages that were sent, but they only said that the power is out and then that campus is closed,” Allison said. “The texts also said to go online for more information, but without power that is very difficult.”

Jolicia Bracy, a sophomore majoring in health administration and policy from Owings Mills, says that communication from the university about the emerging crisis “has been effective but a little slow.”

“It’s been a little hectic, but things are under control now,” Bracy said.

On Sunday, the lights were on at Susquehanna Hall, but the residence building lacks air conditioning, refrigerators, kitchens or laundry facilities.

“It’s a bit toasty,” said Matthew Eastman, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student from Eldersburg.

When the power went out Thursday, students who grew up on digital devices found themselves suddenly cut off from computers, the Internet, video games and cell phone chargers.

“It’s really challenged the patience of a lot of people,” says Alexis Crooks, a junior in history who is from Prince George's County. “We all know it’s nobody’s fault. We just want to get through to tomorrow.”

Students at Susquehanna Hall are bearing through the emergency with a camaraderie forged through adversity.

“People are making all kinds of friends,” Bracy said after helping another student seeking a working refrigerator at the dorm’s front desk.

“You have the whole campus under one roof,” said Crooks.