Sixth period was lights out for UF students during Monday afternoon’s downpour.
The power outage affected most of campus between about 1:15 p.m. and 2 p.m., leaving buildings and students in the dark. UF spokesman Steve Orlando said the outage appears to have resulted from a weather-related problem at the substation on Hull Road.
The substation is operated by Progress Energy, the university’s energy provider. Orlando said the problem was on Progress Energy’s end.
According to a message posted on UF’s website, the Health Science Center received priority attention during the outage.
Besides disabled lights, computers and telephone lines, air conditioning units weren’t running as heavy thunderstorms unloaded about an inch of rain in the area.
Orlando, who’s been at the university for almost 14 years, said he’d never experienced a power outage that affected so much of campus.
“Even through the hurricanes in 2004, we never lost power like that,” he said.
