Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Dozens of students overslept this morning because their alarm clocks simply didn’t go off; the main campus of Swarthmore suffered a power outage starting at around 9:30 AM, Monday morning. The dorms of Kyle, Mary Lyon, and Woolman were unaffected, as were some of the perimeter buildings on Whittier, Elm, and College Avenues.
Director of Maintenance Ralph Thayer explained the technical reasons for the power loss in an e-mail. “What occurred was phase loss. The main campus has three feed wires from PECO and one of those feeders experienced a drop in voltage. This is very bad for three phase equipment. It can overheat motors and pumps and burn them out. As a safety measure the campus switch gear is designed to break the circuits if a phase loss is detected.”
The problem was resolved by PECO at 5:20 PM. According to Director of Facilities Stu Hain, a comprehensive contingency plan existed in the event that the power remained off throughout the night. The library, the fieldhouse, and the academic buildings would have been closed, but Sharples would have stayed open until 1:00 AM because it runs on a back-up generator. Facilities would also have found a way to provide warm water in the bathrooms.
Swarthmore College was far from the only place affected. The Nor’easter caused damage throughout the territories served by PECO, namely Delaware, Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and York Counties. 81,000 customers were affected by what PECO media representative Michael Wood called “damage due to trees and heavy winds.” As of 7 PM, only 8,100 remained without power, according to Wood.
SEPTA’s R3 and R5 lines were also suspended this morning due to power failure. The R5 resumed service at 4:00 PM but as of 10:15 PM, the R3 was still not running. A Customer Services representative speculated that “it might have been because a transformer had come down, since it was taking so long.”
