Cheers populated Ohio Wesleyan’s campus when light returned Monday night after a power outage that put 18,050 Delaware County residents in the dark.
The blackout started at 6:33 p.m. when American Electric Power, the area’s primary electric supplier, lost a feed from FirstEnergy, another power company that feeds into its network, AEP spokesman Jeff Rennie said. The outage affected all of Delaware and an area southwest of the city.
About 12,000 customers, including OWU’s campus, had power restored around 7:40 p.m., Rennie said, but 6,000 are still without power. The county’s emergency management agency reported via Twitter that all affected customers should have power by 9 p.m.
AEP is still investigating what exactly caused the outage, the size of which is “very rare,” Rennie said.
The blackout affected all OWU buildings and halted evening dining services in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center and practices on Selby Field. Public Safety officers freed a student from the campus center’s elevator after it lost power, officer Sean Duffy said.
Students worked by the lights of their computers and cell phones on the JAYwalk and in hallways and a few lit rooms on the residential side of campus.