Graphic featuring the headline “Fallen tree causes major power outage at KSU’s Kennesaw campus” in white text on a black background. Graphic by Karen Lopez
A fallen tree caused a major power outage at Kennesaw State University’s Kennesaw campus Tuesday, according to Georgia Power.
The tree fell onto a power line, causing the outage, Georgia Power said. Crews responded to remove the tree and restore power, which was restored in approximately one hour.
Kennesaw State alerted students during the outage that Kennesaw campus had experienced a “major power outage” and that university officials were assessing the impacts.
The university did not immediately provide additional information about the cause of the outage or its impact on campus operations. The Sentinel reached out to university officials for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
The outage disrupted some work and academic activities on campus.
KSU junior Isabel Robinson was working in a microbiology and anatomy and physiology lab when the power went out. Robinson and her co-workers were preparing and sterilizing media and Petri dishes for upcoming microbiology labs when the outage occurred.
“Right when the power outage happened, me and my coworkers were making and sterilizing the media, which is horrible because we have to make so many Petri dishes for the micro lab, and that delayed us more,” Robinson said.
Robinson said the lab did not have bacteria in its incubators at the time, preventing student experiments from potentially being affected. However, problems with equipment continued after power was restored
“Even after the power came back on, we couldn’t get the media out of the autoclave, or sterilization chamber, because it said ‘error,’ so we had to wait until it was operational again,” Robinson said.
KSU junior Vrinda Paliwal said she first noticed something was wrong when she arrived at the East Parking Deck.
“I pressed the elevator button many times, but the light wasn’t on. I was very confused,” Paliwal said.
When Paliwal entered the Bagwell Education Building, she said the building was dark. Her professor later canceled class because the classroom would become too hot without power.
“The professor came and said that it is going to be hot in the classroom, so I am going to be nice and cancel class,” Paliwal said.
Paliwal said she wished students had received an earlier notification about the outage.
The outage also affected students living on campus. A resident of University Village 1000 said the air conditioning went out throughout the building.
The resident said some students were unable to access their rooms or enter the building during the outage.
“I had to let people in when they texted in the GroupMe,” the resident said.
Georgia Power did not provide additional information about the outage.
