Power Outage Caused by WE Energies Issue, UWM Says

An hour-long campus-wide power outage that briefly stalled campus life Wednesday afternoon was caused by an off-campus WE Energies issue, the university spokesperson says.

The fire alarms in Lapham and the KIRC sounded after a sensor detected a drop in water pressure from the power failure, according to the UWM Police Department.

Power is restored to #UWM campus. The fire alarm in KIRC/Lapham was because the system sensed a drop in water pressure with the power outage. There was no fire. A few people caught in elevators were freed by the Milwaukee Fire Department.

— UW-Milwaukee (@UWM) February 20, 2019

The Milwaukee Fire Department responded and removed people who were trapped in elevators because of the loss of power. Most of these elevators are still out of service and need to be reset before they can operate again, according to University Relations Director Michelle Johnson. She was not specific about the nature of the off-campus issue causing the outage.

UWM sophomore Amber Cozelek sat with friends in the Union food court when the power suddenly went out. Maintenance work, performances, and events all stopped, according to Cozelek.

Power went off at around 1:30 p.m. across UWM’s main campus, but the cause of the power outage is currently unknown.

“Everyone was like ‘What’s going on?’ and after that a lot of people began cramming into the Union,” Cozelek said. “The people working in the Union computer lab all stood up in unison and left.”

Some professors were unable to continue with class and cancelled. For their students, this could be the third or fourth time their Monday-Wednesday classes were cancelled.

“I was annoyed because I was gonna work on homework, but the WiFi is out so I can’t do anything,” Cozelek said.

Other events, meetings, and trainings held by Student Involvement, who are located on the Union’s 3rd floor, had to be cancelled.

Some campus buildings have emergency lights and remained running as normal, according to Union Building Manager Asia Baran.

Students in the Union Rec Center evacuated for safety reasons because of the high-powered machinery in the Rec Center. “If they didn’t have emergency lights, it was pitch dark, so they could trip and fall,” Baran said.

At around 2:20 p.m., power was restored. WE Energies is investigating the cause of the power outage, according to a UWM Safe Alert that was sent to students.