At approximately 10:45 a.m. Thursday, more than half of the buildings on the MU campus experienced a power outage that was restored within 20 minutes. Some of the buildings that lost power include Brady Commons, Ellis Library, Memorial Union, the Geology building and Lee Hills Hall.
University Hospital did not lose power during the outage, said hospital spokeswoman Mary Jenkins.
According to an MU news release, the MU power plant was buying energy from the Midwest electrical grid because of routine maintenance, and the connection was disrupted. The system then automatically turned off power to areas of campus.
Paul Hoemann, director of energy management in the Division of Campus Facilities, said in the release that redirecting power away from certain areas of campus is a safety feature that prevents the system from overloading while maintaining power to as much of campus as possible.
Power was restored to the library and other buildings after the source of the problem was found, but some classes were affected.
Power was not lost at Jesse Hall.
Greg Powell, a student in Wooseung Jang’s statistics class, said the class of about 50 students was dismissed early because the professor’s notes were on his computer.
At 11 a.m. students milling around Fisher Auditorium in Gannett Hall were waiting for the verdict on whether Ernest Perry’s cross-cultural journalism class would be canceled. Perry told his students to wait five minutes to see if the power would come back. Three minutes later, the lights came on and everyone filed into the classroom.