PLNU’s main campus along with sections of Point Loma and San Diego experienced temporary power outages last night. High winds and stormy weather compounded the problem for PLNU officials and maintenance workers who had spent the afternoon dealing with fallen trees and downed light poles across campus.
NBCSanDiego.com reports that the outage left as many as 38,000 homes without power, and that the blackout occurred in the Point Loma area around 6:45 p.m.
Backup generators supplied power to Latter and Sator halls as well as ITS in Ryan Learning Center until power was restored shortly after 11:00 p.m.
It is still unclear to campus officials what caused the power outage.
“Staff members from DPS (Department of Public Safety), Facilities, Grounds, ITS were called in to deal with the downed trees, power, IT, etc.,” said Department of Public Safety Supervisor, Kaz Trypuc in an email to Lomabeat.com Monday morning. “Res Life mobilized fairly quickly in the res halls. All in all, I think it went about as well as it could have under the circumstances.”
He added that in addition to the power outage PLNU’s campus had also suffered some damages from strong winds.
“A few large trees were blown over and others were damaged. The roof of Golden Gymnasium lost quite a few roofing tiles,” said Trypuc.
The storm caused damage throughout San Diego and a falling tree killed the driver of a car in the neighborhood of Pacific Beach.
Senior members of the university including President Bob Brower, Dean of Students Jeff Bolster and Vice President of Spiritual Life Mary Paul met on campus in the Emergency Operations Center to discuss campus operations for Monday if power could not be restored.
“RDs and RAs staffed the boxes and communicated with students to shelter in place for safety,” said Bolster in an email, “We convened in the Emergency Operations Center and monitored local news, SDG&E as well as campus functions (generators, IT, etc.) and remained there until we were sure that power was restored and campus was secure.”
The high winds have continued into Monday as El Niño related weather hit up and down the coast.
“As far as protocols go, we just monitor and respond to the situation,” said Trypuc. “We’d talked through various El Niño-related scenarios in working groups in the fall and laid the groundwork for our response last night.”
Jen Pfeiler 
The Point Staff 
Rebecca Elliott