Holy Cross College lost power at about 6:25 a.m. Wednesday morning, requiring all students to relocate to North Dining Hall.
"We were notified about the power outage, or knew about it, at about 6:25 a.m. [Wednesday] morning, and then we notified all of our students — the residents of the outage — and gave some initial instructions at 6:56 a.m.," JudeAnne Hastings, director of development for Holy Cross, said. "And then pretty quickly, it was determined that we were going to have to evacuate for the safety since it was so cold. So, then there was an alert to evacuate with specific instructions at 8:15 a.m., with evacuation beginning at 8:30 a.m."
All students were evacuated by 9:30 a.m. to North Dining Hall. Notre Dame Transpo buses brought the students to Notre Dame's campus.
Power to the the buildings was restored around 10:30 a.m., Hastings said. However, facilities staff made sure the heat was working in the residence halls and that the buildings began to warm up before sending students back to campus.
“All students have been evacuated and are safe,” Monica Garvey Leyes, assistant director of communications at Holy Cross, said in a statement later that morning. “Power at Holy Cross College has been restored. Students will be shuttled back to campus once rooms in the residence halls have fully warmed up. Holy Cross College wishes to thank all who helped in ensuring the safety of its students, especially the University of Notre Dame.”
Around 1:30 p.m., Holy Cross announced in a Facebook post all students had “safely returned to campus.”
“Our most heartfelt thanks to Transpo for their transportation services during this time, to the University of Notre Dame North Dining Hall, to the Holy Cross Residence Life and Housing staff, and all who helped our students stay warm and safe,” the post said.
The cause of the outage is currently unknown, though Hastings said that Holy Cross staff is currently working with American Electric Power to find out what happened to cause the power to fail.
"We are just eternally grateful for Notre Dame and the partnership we have with them and them just opening their arms to us during this time," she said.
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