Car hitting transformer causes power outage

For students rapidly trying to study for finals and finish papers, a power outage is the last thing they want.

Mark Stutz, an Xcel Energy spokesperson, said some areas of Boulder, which affected 3,500 customers, lost power at 8:49 Thursday evening, power was restored at 9:47 p.m.

The cause of the outage was said to be caused when a car hit a transformer that was in the ground. The outage occurred from Chautauqua on the South to Sunshine Canyon on the North, Canyon Road on the East and 28th avenue on the West.

Lauren Seaber, a 20-year-old junior broadcast news major, who lives in the Kappa Alpha Theta house, said the power outage didn’t affect her personally.

“Well I know a lot of people were studying for finals,” Seaber said. “But I was just watching shows on my computer, so I just noticed it when my computer died.”

Seaber said other girls in her house were very upset by the outage however.

“So I went downstairs, we have emergency lights in the house, so that’s good,” Seaber said. “Everyone was freaking out, and everyone was starting to migrate toward the library because they needed light to study.”

Seaber said the Kappa Alpha Theta house got power back around 9:50 p.m.

Lindsay Brown, a 20-year-old English and pre-education sophomore, lives at University Village which was affected by the outage.

Brown said the outage was very problematic for her.

“Since I was in the middle of finishing one of my final papers, I had to leave and go to my parents’ because the Internet went out,” Brown said.

Brown’s parents live in Northglenn, which she said is about 20 minutes away.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” Brown said. “I have no idea why it went out and it threw off my concentration, and I was almost done with my paper but then the power went out.”

Contact CU Independent Breaking News Editor Ellie Bean at [email protected].