Normal electrical service restored at Duquesne University

PITTSBURGH — Three dorms that lost power at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh on Thursday have reopened, and the faulty cable that caused the outage has been fixed.

About 1,300 students at the private, Catholic school were forced to stay off-campus, with friends in other residence halls, or in temporary spaces equipped with cots in other university buildings after the outages at St. Ann, St. Martin and Assumption halls.

“I took a friend home that lives in Ohio because he didn’t have anywhere else to go. Me and him just hung out and watched movies,” student Brady Abbott said.

The dorms reopened Sunday, but school officials said all three again lost power from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday so crews could switch from backup generators back onto the newly repaired power system.

“We are really proud of our students for going through this. They have been very resilient and we know it’s a trying time for them,” Executive Director of Facilities Management Rod Dobish said. “We worked all weekend running new lines. We got them to each of the buildings and they all tested out well.”

The power failed after a circuit breaker on a gas compressor at the school's on-campus energy center failed and workers traced the problem to a faulty underground cable.

Despite the inconvenience, students told Channel 11 News that they’re glad to see it fixed.

“It will be nice to actually not worry about the power and whether the water is going to be warm or not,” student Brock Krise said.

WPXI