Campus Alert Archive
UVI

A Power Surge Knocked Out the Orville E. Kean Campus for Three Days

VIinfrastructure failureadvisorymedium confidence

A power surge at about 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, badly damaged electrical infrastructure on the University of the Virgin Islands' Orville E. Kean Campus on St. Thomas, knocking out power across the campus. UVI cancelled classes and closed offices at 11 a.m. on February 2 and had employees work from home while crews worked around the clock. Power was fully restored at about 2 p.m. on February 4 after technicians replaced the damaged part.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
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Institution
University of the Virgin Islands
Territory · VI
UVI OU-Alerts
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages 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 reconstruction179 chars
University of the Virgin Islands classes have been cancelled and offices closed on UVI's Orville E. Kean Campus due to a power issue. UVI employees are required to work from home.

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

Reconstructed from the UVI OU-Alerts notice headlined 'classes have been cancelled and offices closed on UVI's Orville E. Kean Campus' issued the morning of February 2, 2023.
The Atlantic Standard Time zone (UTC-4, no DST) applies to the US Virgin Islands; the closure took effect at 11 a.m. AST.
ALL CLEARWebsite
Approximate reconstruction157 chars
Power has been fully restored on the Orville E. Kean Campus. UVI's electrical technicians replaced the damaged part and normal campus operations will resume.

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

Reconstructed from the 'Power Restored on the OEK Campus' OU-Alerts notice; reporting put full restoration at about 2 p.m. AST on February 4, 2023.
The three-day outage was caused by a power surge that damaged campus electrical infrastructure, requiring an external-electrician effort to find and replace the failed component.
Context

Background

The Orville E. Kean Campus is UVI's flagship St. Thomas campus, named for the university's late president emeritus. According to UVI's official OU-Alerts notices, a power surge at about 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, badly damaged some of the university's electrical infrastructure and caused a loss of power. UVI cancelled classes and closed offices at 11 a.m. on February 2 and directed employees to work from home, running generators where available while the Physical Plant and outside electricians worked around the clock to identify the damaged components. The Power Restored notice confirms that at about 2 p.m. on February 4 technicians replaced another damaged part and power was fully restored. The incident shows how UVI's small, grid-dependent territorial campus treats a multi-day power failure as an operational emergency communicated through its OU-Alerts channel. The full verbatim text of the alert pages could not be independently retrieved, so the alerts are reconstructed from the notice headlines and reporting and marked unconfirmed.
Analysis

Key Findings

A single 2:30 p.m. power surge on February 1, 2023, damaged enough campus electrical infrastructure to take the Orville E. Kean Campus offline for roughly three days
UVI used its OU-Alerts web channel to announce a class cancellation, a work-from-home order, and a final power-restored notice
Restoration required outside electricians and replacement of multiple damaged components, completed about 2 p.m. AST on February 4, 2023
Full verbatim alert text could not be retrieved, so the messages are reconstructed from official notice headlines and flagged unconfirmed
Outcome
No injuries were reported. UVI ran generators where available, cancelled classes and closed offices for about two days, and restored full campus power on February 4, 2023, after electricians replaced a second damaged component.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    Classes cancelled and offices closed on UVI's Orville E. Kean Campus - UVI OU-Alerts
    uvi.edu
  2. Official
    Power Restored on the OEK Campus - UVI OU-Alerts
    uvi.edu
  3. Official
    Emergency Preparedness & Communication Methods - UVI
    uvi.edu
Tags
infrastructurepower-outagepower-surgeterritoryvirgin-islandsuvist-thomasadvisory
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion