Campus Alert Archive
UPRRP

Hurricane Erin's Outer Bands Knock Out Power to Río Piedras, Delaying the Start of the Semester a Second Time

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PRpower outageadvisorymedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

The Recinto de Río Piedras of the Universidad de Puerto Rico lost electrical service starting at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 16, 2025, as Hurricane Erin's outer bands swept the island, knocking out power to as many as 160,000 LUMA Energy customers at the outage's peak. Rector Angélica Varela Llavona announced an administrative recess through Tuesday, August 19 and pushed the start of classes to Wednesday, August 20, the campus's second postponement of the new semester that month.

Alerts
1
Response
min
Killed
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Injured
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Institution
Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras
Territory · PR
~13,000 studentsNotificación Institucional UPRRP
Official alert policy
Read when and how UPRRP says it will use División de Seguridad y Manejo de Riesgos (DSMR) — summarized, quoted, and analyzed.
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTWebsite
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from the headline and lead of the official Recinto de Río Piedras notice (aviso-17agosto2025); the full body text of the notice was not independently verified word-for-word192 chars
El inicio de clases será el miércoles 20 de agosto. Se decreta receso administrativo hasta el martes 19 de agosto, debido a la falta de electricidad por inclemencias del tiempo (Huracán Erin).

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The Recinto had already been without electrical service since 8:00 p.m. the previous evening, Saturday, August 16, 2025, when this notice decreed the recess
This was the second time in August 2025 that Río Piedras pushed back the start of its semester, reflecting how recurring grid instability, not just the storm itself, drove the delay
The notice specified that the Sistema de Información Estudiantil (SIE) would remain open for registration and the MiUPI portal for payments even during the recess, and that directors of essential units were to activate the campus's Continuity of Operations Plan
Context

Background

Hurricane Erin passed north of Puerto Rico in mid-August 2025 without a direct landfall, but its outer bands still brought heavy rain, flooding concerns and widespread power outages across the island, with LUMA Energy reporting as many as 160,000 customers, more than 10% of its total, without service at the outage's peak. The Recinto de Río Piedras, the University of Puerto Rico's flagship campus in San Juan, lost electrical service starting at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 16, 2025. The following day, Rector Angélica Varela Llavona announced an administrative recess through Tuesday, August 19, pushing the planned start of the fall semester to Wednesday, August 20, contingent on electrical and cooling systems being restored by then, as Primera Hora and El Nuevo Día both reported. It was the second postponement of the semester's start that August, following an earlier delay tied to campus air-conditioning system problems. The university maintained the SIE registration system and MiUPI payment portal online throughout the recess and directed essential-unit leaders to activate the campus's Continuity of Operations Plan. Governor Jenniffer González Colón said Erin caused no major island-wide damage beyond isolated fallen trees and utility poles.
Analysis

Key Findings

A storm that never made landfall in Puerto Rico still closed the island's flagship public university campus for days, illustrating how outer-band power loss can matter as much as a direct hit
Río Piedras postponed its fall 2025 semester start twice in the same month, once for air-conditioning system failures and again for Erin-related power loss, a pattern pointing to underlying infrastructure fragility rather than a single storm event
The university kept student-facing digital systems (SIE registration, MiUPI payments) online throughout the physical campus closure, decoupling administrative continuity from building access
The recess was tied to an explicit condition, systems being restored by Wednesday, rather than a fixed calendar date, meaning the reopening itself depended on utility restoration outside the university's control
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    El inicio de clases será el miércoles 20 de agosto (Recinto de Río Piedras, official notice)
    uprrp.edu
    archived copy
  2. News
    UPR de Río Piedras vuelve a posponer el inicio del semestre por falta de luz (Primera Hora)
    primerahora.com
    archived copy
  3. News
    Recinto de Río Piedras de la UPR pospone, de nuevo, su inicio de clases (El Nuevo Día)
    elnuevodia.com
    archived copy
  4. News
    El huracán Erin vuelve a categoría 4 (Telemundo)
    telemundo.com
    archived copy
  5. Official
    Recinto de Río Piedras, Universidad de Puerto Rico
    uprrp.edu
    archived copy
Cite this case

Campus Alert Archive. "Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras: Hurricane Erin's Outer Bands Knock Out Power to Río Piedras, Delaying the Start of the Semester a Second Time." Incident of August 17, 2025. Added July 2026. https://campusalertarchive.com/case/university-of-puerto-rico-rio-piedras-erin-power-outage-2025-08-17/

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Alert text quoted on this page remains the work of the issuing institution; the archive is a secondary source.

Tags
power-outagepuerto-ricohurricane-erinterritoryluma-energyrio-piedrascampus-closuresemester-delayspanish-language-alert
Added July 2026Updated July 2026Via ingestion