[Thus. Nov. 3, 10:31 a.m.]
All-campus email reports that power has been restored to the following streets:
Home Avenue
Brainerd Avenue
Lawn Avenue
Pine St.
Vine St.
Fountain Ave.
Washington St. ( one of three legs restored, card access not working in all areas)
Mt. Vernon St.
Washington Terrace
These streets are still without power:
Broad Street – BS Books, Red & Black, WESU
Church
Court
College
High
Knowles
Long Lane
Pearl (south of Washington)
[Wed. Nov. 2, 10:29 p.m.]
Students are reporting that power has returned some of the periphery of campus including woodframe houses on Lawn Ave., Brainerd Ave., Pine St., Fountain Ave., Home Ave., and Warren Ave.
The restoration of power is a welcomed relief to students who were told by CL&P that power would not be restored until Sunday evening.
[Wednesday Nov. 2, 12:12 a.m.]
Reports indicate that SciLi will remain open for the evening. Power is now back up in the Butts, Clark, and Fauver.
[Tuesday Nov. 1, 11:08 p.m.]
Power has been out again for approximately an hour in the Nics, WestCo, Clark, Fauver and other central campus buildings. It remains on in SciLi, which closes at midnight.
[Tuesday Nov. 1, 4:37 p.m.]
According to an all-campus email from President Michael Roth sent out this morning, power has been restored to the central core of campus.
“At 10:00 pm last night we were able to restore power to the central core of the Wesleyan campus, including most classrooms and the residence halls,” the email read. “However, the program houses, wood-frame houses, and the Freeman Athletic Center still have no power, and it is unclear when they will be brought back online.”
Some residence halls that regained power last night have been experiencing intermittent outages. According to Department Assistant of Physical Plant Bruce Strong, this should be a temporary problem caused by a short circuit. Physical Plant has been going building to building and restoring electricity.
Program houses, the Freeman Athletic Center, and woodframe houses which receive power from CL&P, not the University-owned power plant, are still in the dark with no indication from the University or CL&P about when electricity will be restored. Dorm lounges are being converted by Reslife into sleeping quarters for students without power.
[5:15 p.m.] From all-campus update
Dear friends,
Although we are still hopeful that our own generators will be able to bring power back to parts of the central campus, the latest update from Connecticut Light and Power is disappointing. Given this latest news, we will cancel classes tomorrow, Tuesday. Only essential personnel should report to campus.
Recognizing that many students and faculty are away from campus, we will let everyone know by noon tomorrow whether classes will resume on Wednesday. Also, we expect faculty to be flexible with student assignments, and that there will be a collective effort to figure out the best ways to complete the work of the semester.
Food will be available for students who remain on campus, and the Science Library will remain open as a shelter. We will provide updates regarding the situation on campus and in the Middletown area as they are available.
I appreciate that this has been a frustrating experience for members of the Wesleyan community eager for information and reassurance (and heat!). We will continue to share information as we get it and strive to resume educational activities as soon as it is prudent to do so.
Sincerely,
Michael S. Roth,
President
[2:44 p.m.] According to an all-campus update sent at 12:28 p.m., the administration anticipates that power will be restored to campus by this evening and classes will resume tomorrow, though it is still unclear when electricity will be restored to wood frames.
Electricity on campus has been off since late Saturday evening after record-setting Winter Storm Alfred left 93 percent of Middletown and Portland residents without electricity, according to the Middletown Press. Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy has declared a state of emergency as over 750,000 Connecticut residents remain without power.
While many students fled Middletown in search of electricity and hot water, an estimated 50 to 75 percent of the student body stayed.
The University opened a “warming center” in SciLi, where some students camped out. However, many stayed in their residencesdespite the lack of heating.
“It was chilly but it wasn’t freezing,” said Andy Ribner ‘14, who lives in Full House. “I heard that wood frames had it the worst.”
Louis Lazaar ’13 said that while he put on several layers of clothing before going to sleep in his HiRise apartment last night, it was far from frigid.
“It wasn’t that cold in HiRise,” he said. “The inside of the building stayed surprisingly warm.”
According Ribner, morale is, for the most part, high.
“It’s just such a good time to reconnect with people because you can’t do anything else,” he said.
Breakfast was served in both Usdan and WesWings this morning. WesWings served hot food, including soups, hamburgers, and hot dogs, and provided a phone charging station for students.
According to Ribner, Usdan’s “Continental Breakfast” included canned drinks, yogurt, and lots of fruit. Usdan is serving bagged lunches from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. this afternoon.
President Roth, who returned from a trip to Beijing on Sunday evening, wrote in his blog that he was surprised to land in the U.S. and find campus without power, but assured readers that students are safe.
“It was a cold night, but students could camp out in the warm science library or just hunker down together in the residence halls,” he wrote. “Most chose the latter option, and, in good Wes spirit, took the blackout in stride. It’s a beautiful, brisk morning, and the students are safe and sound.”
As of 2 p.m. Director of Public Safety Dave Meyer was unable provide more information about when power would be restored, though he said the PSafe will continue to send updates as soon as more information is available.
“We’re working on all of our options,” Meyer said. “We’ll keep the community informed.”