The Wishbone restaurant is one of 1,000 businesses and residents that lost power April 7.
Credit: Maria MuradAbout 1,000 customers, homes, and businesses in University City experienced power outage Sunday evening, a PECO spokesperson told The Daily Pennsylvanian. All power had been restored.
The spokesperson for PECO, the company that provides electricity for Penn's campus and the nearby area, said the outage occurred because of equipment failure at 37th and Walnut Streets.
At 9:40 p.m., several buildings around Walnut Street lost power, including Hamilton Court, the Starbucks on 39th Street, Wishbone, and Cavanaugh's Restaurant. Both Starbucks and Cavanaugh's are currently closed. Residents of HamCo have lost power and some residents at the Radian, an apartment complex on Walnut Street between 39th and 40th streets, said the lights had been flickering. Some power started being restored at about 10:30 p.m.
College and Wharton sophomore Brandon Nguyen, who is a resident of Hamilton Court, said the lights went out at 9:40 p.m. or 9:45 p.m. He and his roommates were sitting in their living room using the flashlight on their phone as lights. He said the outage is an "annoyance" but he was not significantly affected by it. He said he will likely go to bed early if the power is not restored.
Engineering junior Erin Jung, who also lives in Hamilton Court, said around 9:40 p.m., the lights switched off suddenly and then came back on for a brief second twice.
"Then, it went [dark] completely so I was like 'okay, they fried something,'" she said.
Kia Mason, who is a worker at Jimmy Johns near 40th and Walnut Streets, was slicing some meat when the lights started flickering in the store.
"I thought I was going crazy," Mason said. "I asked one of my co-workers ‘was that the lights or was it me?’ and he was like 'I was not sure,' so I just went on thinking that it was just me until someone came it saying that there was a power outage. So I was like 'it must be the light flickering.'"
Senior Reporter Isabella Simonetti, Contributing Reporter Jason Yan, and News Editor Max Cohen contributed reporting to this story.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
Donate