On Friday, many students’ evening plans were thrown for a loop following a sudden power outage at 8:04 p.m. While the Morgan Apartments, New Apartments, Thomas, Winkler and Bexley Halls regained power almost immediately, other residential halls were without power until around 1:30 a.m.
The power outage occurred due to a car accident on the corner of Chase Avenue and Woodside Drive, leaving a fallen utility pole and power lines. The Mount Vernon Fire Department and Knox County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Office of Campus Safety, arrived on the scene shortly after the crash. One person was taken to the Knox County Hospital, but the extent of their injuries is unknown, according to Director of Campus Safety Michael Sweazey in an email to the Collegian. “Campus Safety initiated traffic safety in the area to ensure no other pedestrians or vehicles entered the danger area. When the [Mount Vernon Fire Department] and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office secured the scene and took over traffic control, Campus Safety returned to their regular duties,” Sweazey recounted. In a campus-wide message, Campus Safety notified students of the incident, stating that there was “no estimated time of electric restoration” as of 8:25 p.m.
The Kenyon community was informed that American Electric Power had “arrived to the Village of Gambier to work on the electric power issues” in another campus-wide message at 9:17 p.m. At that moment, there was still no estimated time of restoration. Campus buildings with generators, including Chalmers Library, Peirce Hall and Gund Commons, were open for students needing to warm up and charge their devices.
Several businesses in the Village of Gambier experienced disruptions because of the power outage. At the Village Inn (VI), the power outage led to an immediate blackout. As smoke from the restaurant’s kitchen filled the dining room, the VI staff had patrons halt their meals and head outside. Bridgette Kelly ’28 was celebrating a tennis teammate’s birthday when the VI was evacuated. “It was very sudden, people started covering their ears. We didn’t really know what to do,” she said in an interview with the Collegian. With fire alarms echoing in the background, the VI completed payments outside as patrons crowded the patio, awaiting their turn to check out.
For some students, the power outage led to anxieties. Izzy Gorchow ’28, who is a Type 1 diabetic, had to quickly take her insulin vials from Caples Hall to Gund Commons in order for them to be properly refrigerated. “It’s a very expensive liquid, and I need it to live, so that was a very stressful situation for me,” she said in an interview with the Collegian.
Other students decided to embrace the mystery of the evening and come together with friends. Naomi Polanski ’27 and her roommates created a blanket fort in the common room of their Taft Cottage. “We knew it would get cold, so we dragged all of our blankets and pillows out to the living room and set them up between our couches,” she described in a message to the Collegian. “The result was a blanket fort, a nest really.”
At 1:33 a.m., students were alerted via a campus-wide message that power had been restored to buildings, with the Kenyon Maintenance Department subsequently repairing necessary systems across campus.