Natalie Lapsley, The Rider editor-in-chief, stands in the hall outside the UTRGV Student Media office in Liberal Arts Building South on the Edinburg campus after a power outage struck the campus this afternoon.
Ashley Cho/FOR THE RIDER
UTRGV has announced that power has been restored to affected buildings on its campus in Edinburg after outages this afternoon left the university in the dark for several hours.
The outages forced the cancellation of in-person classes for the rest of the day.
“Due to ongoing power outages, UTRGV is ceasing operations and cancelling in-person classes in Edinburg for the rest of the day,” according to an emergency notification email sent to the campus community at 5:17 p.m. today.
Patrick Gonzales, vice president of Marketing and Communications, said the company is still trying to figure out the cause of the power outage.
“We are working with the power company right now, American Electric Power,” Gonzales told The Rider via telephone around 6 p.m.
The first reports of sporadic power outage on campus were around 3 p.m., Gonzales said. Some buildings were affected, including Liberal Arts Building South, the University Center and Library Annex, while others were not.
“Some buildings lost internet, but they didn’t lose power and some buildings lost power but not the internet,” Gonzales said. “It was very sporadic.”
Other parts of the city were affected as well.
“When we first contacted AEP, they had reported there were 2,200 outages in Edinburg,” Gonzales said.
The Rider asked Gonzales what caused the outage.
“I don’t think we know yet,” he said. “They’re trying to figure out what may have caused it, but I think it was weather-related because it started when that weather system moved in.”
A cold front passed through the Rio Grande Valley, bringing several inches of rain to some areas.
At 8:05 tonight, a campuswide email stated: “Power has been restored to the affected buildings in Edinburg. In-person classes and operations in Edinburg will resume tomorrow as regularly scheduled.”