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UPDATE: Power Outage Hits University of Kentucky Campus

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Electricity was restored to all campus buildings at the University of Kentucky by 11:00 a.m. Tuesday following a power outage.

UK spokesman Jay Blanton says the failure occurred around 8:30 a.m., affecting most of north and central campus.

“There is a cable that runs from the Student Center to a nearby substation. Apparently that cable burned out in some way.”        

The outage also caused phone service, Internet access, and e-mail servers to go down, but Blanton says public safety communications were still available.

“In the event of an emergency situation we still had the capacity to send text alerts because the company that safety officials utilize for that is an off-campus company, so a server off campus. So they weren’t affected.”

Chandler Hospital and Kentucky Clinic were briefly affected before generators kicked in.

The power outage also caused WUKY, which is housed in McVey Hall, to go off the air for about 15 minutes.

Electricity was re-directed to another substation and restored to most buildings within half an hour, and all buildings had power by 11:00.

UK operates its own power grid. Officials are investigating what caused the cable to fail.

Lexington native Brenna Angel anchored local morning newscasts for WUKY through May 13. She joined the station in March 2010 after previously working for WHAS-AM in Louisville.