A power blackout caused by an American Electric Power transmission line problem darkened campus and much of Northeast Abilene late Tuesday morning for about 20 minutes.

ACU Police Chief Jimmy Ellison said the lights stayed on west of Campus Court.

“The power went off on the main campus and up and down Judge Ely Boulevard, Ambler Avenue and Highway 351,” Ellison said. “The power stayed on at the police station, Barret Hall and Smith and Adams Halls.”

Ellison said the ACU police station receives a flood of calls whenever the power goes out, and he said the department often gets questions about issuing an ACU Alert during these situations.

“We get a lot of calls asking why we didn’t send out an ACU Alert,” he said. “We only send outage alerts if we know the power will be out for a long time or the outage is a part of an on-campus emergency. This was just a typical, short power outage.”

Hunter Turner, sophomore information technology major from Trophy Club, said the blackout almost forced him to change his lunch plans.

‘”I was going into the Bean when the power went out,” Turner said. “They had to stop making food but I was able to get some before they ran out. It was also really smoky in there.”

Jeanetta Norris, junior music education major from Ft. Worth, said she was in a meeting when the lights went out.

“I was upset when the power came back on because I have a piano test today and I didn’t want to take it,” Norris said. “I was hoping classes would be canceled for the rest of the day.”