U-M staff and faculty rise to the occasion during blackout

Updated 4:00 PM September 2, 2003

U-M staff and faculty rise to the occasion during blackout

By Laurel Thomas Gnagey

George Gooch was at home in Jackson, having just completed his shift at the U-M Central Power Plant, when he heard there had been a major regional power outage that affected the University. No one had to call the assistant chief power plant engineer. He simply made his way back to campus as quickly as he could through traffic jams at intersections that had no signals.

Concerned for their patients in need of dialysis, Drs. Joe Messana and Richard Swartz contacted plant officials to secure a generator to run their equipment, then set out to pick up four patients who were unable to get to the clinic because of stalled public and for-hire transportation. Dr. Messana applauds his Division of Nephrology staff members who worked a long day in severe heat in order to conserve power for the life-sustaining machinery.

These are two of the countless stories of U-M employees who dropped what they were doing and used their creative energies to help during the blackout of 2003.

"Our team pulled together in ways that were unfathomable," says Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Tim Slottow. "We had droves of employees who came back to work voluntarily at the end of the day Thursday and worked through the night. So many people stepped up and worked so well together to solve so many urgent and complex issues."

Joe Stchur, director of Facility Operations for the U-M Health System (UMHS), says his employees not only worked to restore electrical systems and to connect temporary power sources, but they delivered fans, dry ice, extension cords and flashlights, and they worked to open locked freezers and move contents before they could thaw.

Staff members scheduled to work at a UMHS Employee Recognition ice cream social went to work instead making peanut butter sandwiches for pediatric patients, since the Mott food service warming carts could not be used without electricity.

Associate Vice President for Facilities and Operations Hank Baier says custodial employees, who could do little of their regular work without power, still came in and helped in nontraditional ways, such as helping to keep people out of buildings until power could be restored and other building systems returned to normal function.

"The team did an extraordinary job taking care of the University community and all of its assets with an amazing amount of compassion, speed and thought," Slottow says. "The folks who played crucial roles in this event exemplify what makes this university great."

—Information from an article by Dosia Spaeth, UMHS Information Officer, was used in this story. For more on how UMHS employees responded to the emergency, see her full article at http://www.med.umich.edu/prmc/star/Out.htm.

U-M staff and faculty rise to the occasion during blackout

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