UPDATE at 9:20 a.m. on 2/11/2020 – North campus’ loss of power and the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex sprinkler incident are not related.

The Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex flooded from a sprinkler head hit by a softball and parts of St. Thomas’ North Campus lost power for 3.5 hours, disrupting campus life Monday evening.

While both incidents occurred within an hour of each other, they were unrelated; despite an incorrect campus-wide alert stating that the loss of power was caused by the tripped sprinkler head.

“The timing of these two events was coincidental and unrelated to each other. The clean-up is now complete and there does not appear to be any lasting damage to buildings or systems,” Associate Vice President for Facilities Jim Brummer wrote in an email.

The St. Thomas softball team was practicing indoors when first-year Coryn Jacobson’s ball hit a sprinkler head, flooding the field house and causing a building evacuation around 7:20 p.m. Facilities shut the water off to clean the AARC.

Meanwhile, North Campus lost electrical service around 8:20 p.m. due to a failed ground water pump system in the O’Shaughnessy Educational Center main electrical vault, which is also North Campus’ primary electrical feed.

“Twelve plus inches of ground water entered the electrical vault causing the primary fuses to blow, thus shutting down the power,” Brummer wrote in an email.

A campus-wide alert, sent at 8:56 p.m. Monday, originally blamed the loss of power on the tripped sprinkler head. This alert was incorrect.

Facilities fixed the pumps at 9 p.m. and replaced the main fuses at 11:45 p.m. to restore electrical service to campus.

Power outage

Dowling Hall, Murray Hall, Brady Hall, Ireland Hall, O’Shaughnessy Educational Center, O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Anderson Student Center and the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex were affected by the outage.

First-year Olivia Morales was in the library studying with friends when the power went out sounding the alarm system.

“I thought that we were under a lockdown or something,” Morales said.

Scooter’s in the Anderson Student Center shut down as a result of the power outage, leaving students disappointed.

“You don’t know how much we take Scooter’s for granted until the power goes out,” first-year student Chihiro Gustafson said.

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Wendy Wyatt urged faculty Tuesday to “show some flexibility” to residential students who weren’t able to complete homework assignments because of the power outage.

Students in residence halls were also inconvenienced by the power outage.

Firefighters rescue first-year student Andy Longval from in a Dowling Hall elevator. Power went out on north campus Monday evening after the groundwater pump system in the O’Shaughnessy Educational Center main electrical vault, North Campus’ primary electrical feed, failed. (Video courtesy of Abby Mackenthun)

“I was in Murray Hall, I was going up the elevator and the lights turned off and I was stuck,” first-year Mckinley Burke said. “My best friend Elizabeth Arens pried it open with me.”

Softball flooding

The St. Thomas softball team was practicing indoors when first-year Coryn Jacobson’s ball hit a sprinkler head, flooding the field house and causing a building evacuation.

“At first when I hit the ball it felt so good, it definitely hit the sweet spot of the ball,” Jacobson said. “I was running the bases and some of my teammates stopped and looked, so I looked, and at first it looked like dust coming down from the ceiling but then a whole gush of water started falling.”

Jacobson said she didn’t know if she should be laughing or feel bad about the situation.

“I was feeling mixed emotions, but now I think it’s funny,” Jacobson said. “I also apologize for any inconvenience it had on anyone.”

The building was evacuated immediately following the incident.

Water also leaked from the ceiling into the corner of the women’s locker room.

Junior Claire Hautman was working at the AARC front desk when the flooding started.

“All of a sudden, we heard the recording saying there’s a fire emergency, please exit the building,” Hautmann said. “We saw the lights and then public safety coming through.”

According to softball coach John Tschida, this isn’t the first time the AARC has flooded from stray balls.

“I guess a year or two years ago, a volleyball hit one and triggered it to just do the same thing. Nothing you can do,” Tschida said.

As softball players filed out of the field house still pooling with water, Tschida found humor in the situation.

“Game got rained out,” Tschida joked.

Annie Terry can be reached at Terr2351@stthomas.edu
Althea Larson can be reached at lars2360@stthomas.edu.
Carly Noble, Emily Haugen, Burke Spizale, Joey Swanson and Samantha HoangLong contributed to this report.