Fault in electrical system causes power and hot water outages on the 40

| Staff Writer

At 1:23 a.m. on Sunday morning, on Jan. 26, lights went dark across the South 40. For approximately two hours, there was no power to the dorms, and some students were subsequently left without hot water.

The outage last week was caused by a fault in the Ameren electrical system, which supplies power to WashU’s campus. Ameren quickly dispatched a team of electricians, according to WashU Facilities, and soon identified the problem. At 3:33 a.m., around two hours after the initial outage, power was reestablished on the South 40 using a different power feed.

In a written statement to Student Life, WashU Facilities said their staff was made aware of the power outage immediately.

“WashU has robust electrical monitoring systems that alerted Facilities staff instantly about the power outage,” WashU Facilities wrote. “In this case, WashU and Ameren personnel were in contact within 15 minutes of the event to share information and discuss solutions for refeeding the South 40.”

Though the outage was brief, a number of students were awake during the blackout. One first-year student, Phoebe Taylor, took advantage of the power outage to have a fun time with her friends.

“I knew [the power] was going to come back on at some point. It was kind of fun, because my friends and I did karaoke in the dark, had our flashlights on, and one of my friends was playing guitar. I thought it was a cute moment,” Taylor said.

Jazmyne Driver, a first-year living in Eliot A, had a converse experience. The power outage caused her to feel apprehension for her next day of classes.

“I woke up, looked at my phone, and saw it was not charging,” Driver said. “It was on 30% and I felt a lot of anxiety, because I needed to charge my devices for [the next day].”

After the outage, water heating equipment did not reactivate in Mudd House and Park House until two days later, resulting in a hot water shortage for Mudd and Park residents.

“The periods of lower temperature hot water were caused by the equipment not automatically restarting after the Ameren power outage, a problem with the temperature control valve, and a failed sensor, respectively,” WashU Facilities said.

WashU supplemented the cold water in the Mudd and Park houses with warmer water from their holding tanks; however, some students still felt the effects of cold water temperatures. Sophomore Amelia Kaye, a Mudd House resident, was frustrated by having to take cold showers.

“[It] was annoying, because I had put a hair mask in, and I didn’t know the [hot] water was out. I came home to shower, and the water was really cold, but I had to take a shower anyway,” Kaye said. “I couldn’t not wash my hair at that point. It was really cold.”

WashU Facilities confirmed that systems are now back to normal.

Interim Director of Utility Operations David Baca said the Facilities team has and will continue to work hard at keeping systems operational.

“WashU Facilities team members understand and empathize with students who were impacted by the power and hot water outage because we experience these events at our homes as well,” Baca wrote in a statement to Student Life. “Please know that we work diligently to resolve all the issues to the best of our ability to serve the students, faculty, and staff at WashU.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated on February 4, 2025, to include information from Jane Kojima clarifying the durations of the electrical feed and hot water outages.

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