A faulty cable shortage is said to have caused temporary power loss to the east side of campus around 11:25 a.m. Tuesday.

Bob Albanese, associate vice president of finance and facilities operations, said when the cable shorted out, it caused an underground electrical vault to explode. Though there was no fire, the explosion caused a manhole cover in the Anderson Hall parking lot to fly off and damage a nearby car. Albanese said manhole covers weigh around 200 pounds. The cable was first installed in 1962, he said. Buildings that lost power included Anderson Hall, Wirtz Hall, McMurray Hall, Still Hall, Altgeld Hall and the east heating plant.

Albanese said power was restored to all the buildings except Anderson by 12:30 p.m. Anderson was back online around 1 p.m., he said.

“We have back ups for all the buildings,” Albanese said. “We were able to re-route most of the buildings and get them back online within an hour.”

Albanese said workers had to wait for the smoke around the manhole cover to clear before they could go in and repair and assess the damage.

Brad Hoey, team leader for Media Relations and Internal Communication, said as far as he knew all classes that were scheduled to take place did take place.