While it only lasted 40 to 50 minutes, last Thursday’s power outage shocked campus.
Between 10 and 11 in the morning, amidst heavy rain, sections of downtown Canton and Potsdam found themselves in the dark, along with students in residential halls, academic buildings, the Student Center, and ODY.
Without the underlying buzz and whir of fridges, desktops, chargers and fans around campus, the reigning acoustic became the loud pounding of rain. The dim light of a gloomy day did little to illuminate dark buildings, especially those devoid of large windows.
As students began to post concerns and observations on their Snapchat and Instagram stories, security was starting their power outage protocol.
Their first concern: the key card system. The lock and key card system for residential areas is connected to the power grid. When campus loses power, the access control systems shut down and students cannot enter residential areas. On any particularly rainy day lack of access to dorms, dry shoes and dry clothes is a pressing issue.
Almost immediately after the lights went out, Patrick Gagnon, the Assistant Vice President of Safety and Security and Emergency Management, and his team were bolting throughout campus and opening residential halls for soaking students.
While making residential halls accessible, Patrick mentioned the team had to ask themselves “if it were to become prolonged [into the night] what would we do?”
During the outage, desktop systems shut down. When desktop systems fail, Patrick explained, the security team resorts to Everbridge Emergency System’s SLU Alerts to contact and notify students and staff. Since last week’s outage only disrupted campus for a short time, a SLU Alert was not deemed necessary.
Although short, the outage still had an impact on students’ daily routines. Some classes were let out early and some students, like sophomore Josh Madsen, were stuck outside residential halls pre-security “save.”
Madsen, a CA in Lee, reflected on the outage: “It reminded me of how insanely fragile everything is. The power went out and all of a sudden I couldn’t get into my dorm room and grab a rain jacket.”
Despite the unfortunate rainy circumstances during the recent power outage, it fell during a relatively low impact time.
Patrick Gagnon described the two-week long power outage on campus during the ice storms of ‘98. While the ‘98 black out fell during winter break, St. Lawrence acted as a refuge for local residents who came to reside in the back-up, generator-powered Newell Field House.
Thankfully, last week’s blackout did not come close; though the rain continued throughout the entirety of the day, the power was soon re-routed and campus was no longer in the dark.