When the power goes out in the homes of thousands of students, what exactly happens? The answer is confusion and stress, as shown by last Thursday’s power outage on the South 40. And though such reactions are to be expected any time our lives get thrown a curve ball, emergency systems are put in place to lessen the effects. Last week, those systems didn’t seem to function properly, bewildering not only those living on the 40, but also those we pay to look after us.

If you were walking back from class last Thursday, you would have been welcomed by a surreal experience: a world without e-mail, Instant Messenger, or even enough light to do homework. We live in a time where so much depends upon electricity that when it is taken away, our lives seem to just stop. These things happen though, and when they do, we can only try our hardest to cope without the perks that come with living in a world with electricity.

However, even without power, we expect our lives to maintain some semblance of normalcy. This is the reason emergency systems are put into place. They allow us to find our way out of the lonely dark, reassure us that someone has thought of an emergency like this and has planned for it, and give us at least some comfort in knowing that we are still safe.

Last Thursday however, such comforts were not provided by the emergency systems. One of the biggest problems was that some of the emergency lights that are supposed to stay on in the hallways went out. This meant that students needing to get outside had no way to see where they were going-even when going down stairs. The reason for this lies in that the older dorms are on gas-powered backups, while those in the new dorms are powered by batteries. After a few hours, all lights went out in the newer dorms.

In Mudd, one girl had to walk bent over down three flights of stairs, using the tiny fluorescent light in her cell phone to show her the way. The possible accidents that could have occurred do not even have to be stated.

Another problem was that the card reader in Gregg malfunctioned, and Residential Life was not sure if other readers would go out as well. As a result, RA’s remained on the ground floors of the residence halls on the 40 to let residents in and to check ID’s, just in case the readers were not properly working. Though the other readers did stay on throughout the blackout, many RA’s were inconvenienced for most of the night and residents had to deal with the added loss of security.

Moreover, some students who stayed in their rooms were forced to deal with a lack of heating-those systems also gave out when the power was shut down. Although maintenance crews were sent out to go check the heating systems, nothing could be done to restore their function because they were not linked to the backup power systems. Some students therefore had to live with no heating during a cold winter night.

Furthermore, there were no emergency lights set up in any of the parking lots, making it extremely difficult to safely find one’s car if one wished to leave campus and go study, eat, or stay somewhere else.

It is unacceptable that the emergency systems did not function properly during last week’s blackout. There are always some inconveniences to be expected in an emergency, but there were just too many questions regarding safety. Lights supposed to lead you to safety went out, heating systems shut down, and the security for the doors protecting our homes was questionable.

Residential Life is currently looking into the questions that arose as a result of last week’s incident. The individuals working with Residential Life and the WUPD did as much as could be asked of them at the time. Police officers and RA’s were posted to help the security issue, heating systems were checked immediately, and someone was sent to each room to notify individuals as to what happened and to keep the channels of information open.

What failed last Thursday were the mechanical components of the emergency system. Associate Director of Residential Life Rob Wild noted that “the systems worked as well as could have been expected.” Though that may be true, the fact remains that support systems that were supposed to provide for our safety failed.

And what would have happened if the power were out for a longer period? St. Louis is in a tornado zone, and if the power had been cut due to a more major emergency, students might been left stricken for days.

What needs to happen is not only a thorough check of the system, which ResLife is currently doing, but also the development of a plan of action informing students of what to do if another emergency occurs. Possible mechanical changes include a switch back to the older system of gas-powered backup generators and more emergency lights around campus parking lots and other potentially dangerous areas.

Not only is it unacceptable for backups not to function, but is outrageous that there was no concrete plan to deal with last week’s emergency.

Popularity: unranked [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Friday, February 14th, 2003 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.