The power went out in more than 20 buildings on the UC Berkeley campus at around 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

The outage mainly affected buildings on the northeast part of campus, including North Gate Hall, Cory Hall and the Lawrence Hall of Science.  Power was restored about 30 minutes later, according to Christine Shaff, communications director of the campus’s Facilities Services Department.

A result of an equipment malfunction during a routine switching procedure on the campus’s physical power plant, the outage disturbed classes and midterms in the morning.

UC Berkeley junior Quyen Huynh was taking a Psychology 2 midterm in LeConte Hall when the power went out.

“It was difficult to see. There was one small back up light in the room and that’s about it,” she said in an email. “Students took out their cellphones to try to finish the test. And people around me just left.”

But soon after, the fire alarm in the building went off and students, staff and faculty were forced to evacuate. Many students finished the midterm on the steps in front of LeConte Hall.

Amruta Trivedi is the assistant university news editor. Contact her at [email protected]

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