THURSDAY
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA
GREEKS
SEPTEMBER 24, 1998 SPORTS
New frets, sororities 5
Cross country doing well...13
COLUMN
RAISING THE ROOF
You Heard It Here First 6
Homecoming events 15
AROUND CAMPUS
The Student Voice Since 1903
Student activities 18
University assesses Monday night's storm damage By Madhumathi Krishnamurthy sta
ter
C
haos spread across UCO campus Tuesday morning after the swirling winds of a thunderstorm created havoc to trees and electric poles in its path. The storm began around 6:30 p.m., Monday night and lasted through the early hours of Tuesday morning. High winds downed power lines cutting off electricity to most of the buildings on and around campus. Power was lost in buildings from south of Ayers to Second Street including Hamilton Fieldhouse and all parking lots. However, a few buildings were backed up by generators. Some of the buildings affected were the Broncho Apartments, family graduate apartments, all three resident halls, Howell Hall, Mitchell Theater, University Center, Central Cafeteria, Central Plant, Liberal Arts Building, and the Library. Downed power lines also caused failure in air conditioning systems in most of the buildings on campus. As of Tuesday afternoon, eight buildings were still without air-conditioning. Everything is expected to be restored and back on line by today, said Kevin Williams, mechanical engineer of UCO facilities management. "The storm caused a tremendous amount of electrical damage," Williams said. Facilities management is still investigating to find more damage. Due to loss of computer communications between buildings, they are manually
Some of us have been up most of the night. It's been the absolute worst day on record, and one of the worst in the history of UCO. —Kevin Williams UCO student
surveying all buildings, Williams said. "Some of us have been up most of the night. It's been the absolute worst day on record, and one of the worst in the history of UCO," Williams said. Similarly, the Edmond Fire department responded to approximately 40 emergency calls from UCO and across town. Lightning associated fires and burned electrical transformers caused damage, however there were no reported injuries to civilians. "When a thunderstorm of this magnitude moves through, the fire department is usually the one people call," said fire Marshall David Wiist. "Our department was constantly running from one incident to another, and all four stations were out at one time." The storm winds were so strong they tore out an anchored high voltage electrical splice can, that was bolted to a
• See STORM, Page 4
Above: A tree by West Hall was blown down during Monday night's storm.
Left: UCO West Hall residents were told to adjourn outside by the residence hall staff due to the power outage.
(Photos by J. B. Workman)