At approximately 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16, several residential areas at the University of Massachusetts lost power during a powerful storm sweeping over Western Massachusetts and southern New England.
In the Commonwealth Honors College, Southwest Residential Area and Northeast Residential Area, students on social media reported flickering lights, partial lights provided by generators or complete outages. Several parts of campus remained unimpacted, with the W.E.B. DuBois Library and other residential areas continuing operation.
At 11:55 p.m., a representative from the UMass Physical Plant, which is responsible for the custodial, grounds, utilities and building maintenance, stated there was no update on the cause of the outage. As of 12:09 a.m. on Thursday, a cause remained unknown and the University tweeted that facilities crews were working to restore service.
ALERT: There is a power outage impacting parts of campus. Facilities crews are on the scene and working to restore service. Updates will be posted.
— UMass Amherst (@UMassAmherst) October 17, 2019
In a post on the Wildfire app, a student at the University shared a video of a large tree by a tunnel in the Southwest area, apparently brought down by strong winds during the storm.
According to Eversource, as reported by Western Mass News, over 1,220 residents in Amherst and thousands more in the Pioneer Valley experiencing power outages shortly after midnight. In the same report, Amherst Fire Chief Tim Nelson stated a section of East Pleasant Street was closed after trees came down onto the roadway.
The power outages occurred during a flood watch in western Massachusetts, starting from 10 p.m. Wednesday through Thursday morning. A wind advisory was also in effect from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 6 p.m. Thursday, with winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour expected, with gusts of up to 50 miles per hour, according to 22News.
At 12:44 a.m., the University confirmed power had been restored across campus.
UPDATE: Power has been restored on campus. Facilities crews will continue to monitor building systems throughout the night.
— UMass Amherst (@UMassAmherst) October 17, 2019
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Kathrine Esten can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @KathrineEsten.
Ed Cutting, EdD • Oct 17, 2019 at 2:04 pm
Cause unknown?!?!
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In addition to the power co-generated by the steam plant, UMass has at least four 13,600 volt (3 phase) Eversource “circuits” that run to campus from the substation in South Deerfield. In English, this is three wires on telephone poles — two of these circuits run behind Puffton, memory is that another runs down East Pleasant Street.
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Hence knowing that “a section of East Pleasant Street was closed after trees came down onto the roadway”, doesn’t a cause come to immediate mind?
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It’s actually more complicated because UM has the ability to crank up the steam plant to produce steam that isn’t needed so as to generate more electricity in an emergency (and dumping it overboard after running it through the turbines). They can also start emergency generators and then then use the power those buildings had been using elsewhere.
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But, umm, trees fall down — taking wires with them — and the lights go out. Hmmmmm…….