Gustav Leaves Campuses in the Dark

Around Campus Editor

   The University reported a power outage due to Hurricane Gustav Sept.2 around 11:30 a.m, which affected the Math and Science Center, Fine Arts, Bankston Hall, Public Safety and the Museum of Natural History. Diane Forrest from the Physical Plant, said the outage was due to the storm when a transform fuse dropped out of the transformer box.

Photo by Latoya Shelton

Lights Out - Farrokh Abedi, assistant dean of Mathematics, teaches class during the power outage. Classes were canceled that morning but a few professors decided that their classes must go on. A few students used their cell phones for lights.

   Entergy had been contacted on Tuesday and said they were working on the outage.

    Instructor of Mathematics Linda Chapman said, “When the power went out that morning, I did not let out class. I opened the blinds and the class was able to continue their work.”

   She allowed them to do group work for a portion of the class. Chapman said if she had canceled class then her students would have missed a day and half worth of work.

    Geology professor James Edson still held his afternoon lab on Tuesday. Edson opened the blinds covering the windows to let in natural light.

   Bill  Huggins, a student in the Geology Lab that afternoon said, “It didn’t bother me much with the power being out, blinds were open so that helped.” 

   Dean of Math and Science Morris Bramlett said a lot of the faculty depends on computers and some took their work home for the day.

   With the power affecting Bankston Hall, Chancellor Jack Lassiter said one side of Bankston had power and one side did not.

   Students at the hall there were provided with flashlights and portable fans.

   On Wednesday, Sept.3, classes in the Math and Science Center were canceled due the power outage and some classes in the Babin Business Center basement were also canceled due to flooding in some of the classrooms.

   Provost David Ray said the only damage done was to the cooling system motor which had burned up and the BBC had some flooding in one of the classrooms in the basement.

   “We were lucky that we didn’t get more damage,” Ray said.

   The flooding in the BBC, Ray said, was water vacuumed out and fans were brought in to help dry out the room. 

   Bobby Hoyle sent an e-mail to the students and staff stating the Crossett campus had reported a power outage. At 3 p.m., the campus wasrunning on backup power and telephones, but e-mailand Internet was reported down.

Mitch Powell, Crossett student services coordinator, said the Crossett campus lost power on Tuesday at about 2:30 p.m. and power was restored around 8 p.m. Classes on Wednesday for Crossett were canceled because some roads were under water and area schools were closed. Nearly 25 classes at the school were affected because of the weather.

   Those buildings which have generators comprise Horsfall Hall, the John Gibson University Center, Public Safety and Wells Hall. At the present time, the Crossett and McGehee campuses do not have generators, but Lassiter said he would like to see those campuses get some.

   Hurricane Gustav turned into a tropical depression on Tuesday, Sept 2. The weather brought heavy rains, winds and flooding to parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri and Oklahoma according to the National Weather Service National Hurricane Center. 

   The storms heavy rains and winds caused power outages throughout the state of Arkansas. On Wednesday, around 100,000 customers were without power, according to KARK, but by Thursday Sept. 4 those without power were less than 65,000 customers. 

    Both Ray and Lassiter were grateful to everyone who helped to get the campuses back up and running at 100 percent.  

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