Campus news

Campus works its way back to normal as power is mostly restored

By Public Affairs

Generators were successfully installed Tuesday night, restoring full or partial service to most facilities on the UC Berkeley campus, including Dwinelle, California and Durant halls and Doe and Moffitt libraries. A full class schedule began Wednesday morning.

In addition, Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and ASUC leader DeeJay Pepito sent a CalMessage to all faculty, staff and students Tuesday night to deliver their thanks, plus reassurances, advice and an update on progress toward full restoration of power.

Dwinelle Hall, one of Berkeley’s busiest classroom buildings where hundreds of students were scheduled to take mid-term exams this week, was back in business Wednesday on generator power; it was closed all day yesterday as a result of the campuswide power outage that started late Monday afternoon.

Generators were brought in to restore climate control for Doe Library and for the Bancroft Library, which houses a vast collection that includes the ancient Egyptian Tebtunis Papyri, the Mark Twain Papers and materials that tell the story of the California Gold Rush.

Temporary generators also allowed lights and computers to be turned back on in California Hall, the campus’s central administration building, and nearby Durant Hall.

On Tuesday, 11 campus buildings were being kept off the grid as a safety precaution, while a contractor assessed damage from Monday’s incident. Campus officials have confirmed that damage done by the theft of copper grounding wire from the university’s electrical system was the direct cause of Monday’s outage. The investigation in to whether the damage done by the theft was directly or indirectly responsible for the ensuing fire in an electrical vault adjacent to California Hall continues.