A power outage affected several Greek houses and streetlights near 38th and Walnut streets early Friday night.
PECO spokesperson Greg Smore said the incident occurred around 5 p.m. when an "underground piece of equipment caused an outage." He added that the incident impacted 17 customers.
"Crews arrived on site to investigate and were able to make repairs to restore service to all customers around 8:30 p.m.," Smore said.
The outage caused significant traffic congestions along Walnut Street, resulting in Penn Police officers directing traffic at the intersection. The incident came at an inconvenient time for fraternity and sorority houses, which were in the middle of rush. While some events were not affected, several were delayed because of the power outage.
Penn Police directed traffic at the intersection which delayed many drivers and students during the outage.
“I know there was a power outage in Sigma Delta Tau. It was the middle of the second round of the day – the power went out and we didn’t really know what was happening," Alpha Delta Pi Recruitment Counselor and Wharton senior Elizabeth Goran said, adding that the sorority let people out of a rush event 5 to 10 minutes early because of the outage.
"It seems like they have adapted – they had their phone lights and were still going on with the rounds and everything," Goran added.
College freshman Matthew Han, who is rushing a fraternity, also said he was affected by the power outage.
“We were headed to [Sigma Phi Epsilon] and they had to push back their open rush event to 9 p.m. due to the power outage,” Han said.
Several Greek houses on the 3900 block of Spruce and Delancey streets also experienced a similar power outage after a contractor hit a PECO cable in March 2017.
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