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| Blackout causes delays |
Carrie Baker
Senior Staff Writer
Chancellor/ Student Development Beat |
Josh Brown | Chief Photographer
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Appalachian State
University was faced with an unexpected emergency when a power failure
shut down all electricity on campus Wednesday morning around 10:40
a.m.
Grey Sheer, director of Community Relations at
Blue Ridge Electric, said the 40-minute power outage was due to
a “mechanical failure on a transmission line.”
The insulation on one of the two transmission
lines was damaged, affecting two substations operated by Blue Ridge
Electric and three substations operated by New River Light and power. |
The insulation
on one of the two transmission lines was damaged, affecting two
substations operated by Blue Ridge Electric and three substations
operated by New River Light and power.
Sheer said the failure not only affected the Appalachian campus
but 11,000 consumers in almost the entire town of Boone as well
as Perkinsville and the Sherwood area.
Renee Whitener, director of Corporative Communication at Blue Ridge
Electric, said the cause of the damage to the transmission line
insulator was still under investigation.
Sheer said transmission lines were the larger lines that carry power
to substations in the area. Substations are the areas in Boone with
large metal towers surrounded by fences.
Sheer said no storm had compromised the transmission line and the
mechanical failure was a “quick fix.”
Students, faculty and staff at Appalachian were affected in a number
of ways yesterday morning when they found themselves without power.
Larry Bordeaux, director of the ASU Physical Plant, said representatives
with the Physical Plant responded immediately to remove people trapped
in elevators that had shut down. A representative with the ASU Physical
Plant said workers responded to six buildings on campus including
Plemmons Student Union, Gardner Hall, White Hall, Eggers Hall, the
Broyhill Inn and Conference Center and Broyhill School of Music.
Bordeaux said emergency generators were activated in most buildings
immediately as the outage occurred. Bordeaux said the generators
provide back up electricity to mainly residence halls and computer
centers on campus.
Rick Geis, director of Housing and Residence Life, said Appalachian
State was “fortunate” to have its newly installed energy
back up system in the residence halls.
Barry Sauls, director of parking and traffic at Appalachian, said
the power outage left traffic lights and automatic gates non-functional,
making some vehicles trapped in lots. The Appalachian Police and
the Parking and Traffic departments responded by directing traffic
through traffic lights and removing gate arms from lots where cars
were blocked inside.
Food Services employees were forced to manually ring up customers
and write down student identification numbers to charge students
for food purchased during the failure. |
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