Though the land has dried from last month’s flooding, problems resulting from the rain persist.

As the rain intensified, power outages followed. The outages impacted several buildings across campus, including Anderson, Wirtz and Altgeld halls, among others, said Building Maintenance Director Mike Saari. Several of these buildings harbor computer labs and other valuable equipment.

These buildings are controlled by the electrical substation, which is located under Lucinda Avenue. The power outages were caused when a service line with a fault in its insulation was exposed to water, Saari said. This caused the fuses to blow a switch controlling the NIU buildings.

Though the substation was damaged, it was still able to be salvaged, Saari said.

The electrical substation was taken offline, power was rerouted and Anderson Hall was provided electricity through a generator. Nearly 1400 feet of electric cable were replaced. Total repairs took about three weeks, Saari said.

“Anytime you have any major storm event, you’re going to be susceptible to the effects,” Saari said.

Damage estimate totals for the flood are still in the works, Saari said. NIU received funding after Gov. Blagojevich declared DeKalb, one of several areas hit with power outages, a disaster area.

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