Power restored after widespread outage on KU campus

Power has been restored to a number of major buildings affected by a Thursday morning power outage on Kansas University’s campus.

An electrical circuit feeding the KU campus failed and was down for 3 minutes, from 11:14 to 11:17 a.m., according to Westar representative Jaycee Breese. Breese said KU began restoring power slowly, so as not to overload its equipment. Power was restored to all buildings by 12:17 p.m., KU said.

Initial reports on social media indicated power was out in the Kansas Union, Wescoe Hall, Strong Hall, Malott Hall and several other buildings in the main part of campus near Jayhawk Boulevard.

The outage did not appear to affect Anschutz Library or a number of other buildings in the west-central section of campus.

Steam pressure issues caused the outage, and some areas of campus might experience temporary hot water outages, KU said.

Around noon, fire crews responded to a report of smoke inside Snow Hall on Jayhawk Boulevard. Fumes from a diesel generator entered the building through a door that had been propped open, and there was no fire, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Division Chief Eve Tolefree said. The building was reopened after a brief investigation.