On Feb. 20, around 10:10 p.m., Lindenwood University lost power to the entire campus, and the temperature was a frigid 11 degrees Fahrenheit.
This means all students suddenly had no power or heat in the middle of the night. Even the streetlights went out, meaning the only lights on campus were flashlights and flood lights.
If it wasn’t for the lights and heat coming back on a mere 23 minutes later, the campus may have faced greater problems. Students in the dorms would have needed to bundle up to deal with the freezing temperatures, and campus food services would have been closed down.
According to the Lindenwood University website, students and staff can expect emergency alerts or messages from campus authorities in case of emergencies. However, when the power went out on the 20th, there were no notifications from campus or coordinated efforts.
This is because, in Lindenwood’s more specific Basic Emergency Action Plans document, which can be found here, it is outlined that a utility outage is not typically going to ” cause emergencies within a facility.” It does note that utility outages can be a cause of injuries or accidents, but again, not an emergency. There is no actual outline for what students can do when power goes out.
All the document says is that the building coordinators, RCCs, should check on all residential housing, make sure no one is stuck in the elevator, and assess the situation.
Katt Mossinghoff, an RA for Calvert Rogers Hall, was thrown off by the sudden lack of power and had no idea what to do. “We know that they have emergency policies in place for lights in hallways due to generators for temporary, but not a set outline on responsibility [in the case of a power outage].” She told us.
Mossinghoff said that while her RA training included action plans for fire watch, tornadoes, earthquakes, and shootings on campus, there was no information provided on what to do in the case of a power outage. Specifically, no information on what to do if an entire residential building loses power in the middle of the night while temperatures are below freezing and dropping.
As of 12:41 p.m., Feb. 21, the campus has yet to release any information to students or residents regarding the outage. Ameren Power released that the outage affected a good portion of St. Charles residents. According to a story from Fox 2 Now, Ameren had been preparing for potential outages all week due to the extreme cold and snow.
In case of future outages on campus, students should be aware that Lindenwood has no published plans in place to provide heating, cooling, or other services. Students should try contacting their building RCCs or public safety if anything does occur. If the events of the 20th are anything to go off of, be prepared for a loss of heating, lack of street lights in the dark, loss of running water, no access to elevators even for disabled residents, and no emergency messages from University channels.
As always, the best practices in a blackout are to fill as many water bottles as you can with fresh water, bundle up if it is cold outside, and conserve energy on any devices that can be used to call emergency services.
