A brief 10-minute power outage hit the University Union Friday morning, darkening part of the building and freezing two ATM machines in the middle of transactions. A second outage is planned for the afternoon.

University Union Assistant Director of Operations Donald Tucker said a faulty breaker in the basement was the origin of the blackout. As a result, power was shut down long enough for it to be tested and calibrated.

Two ATM’s were affected by the outage.

“It gave us our money, but not our cards. They could have at least put a sign up,” said Jacquie Coe, who was on her way back to work at the Center for Math and Science Education when the blackout struck.

The machines are currently up and running, but will probably shut down again during the second planned outage Friday afternoon.

“We don’t know the time yet but we will have to shut the power off again,” Tucker said.

Tucker promised to post employees at the ATMs in order to avoid customers from utilizing the machines.

Safety doors in front of the elevators closed during the outage but Tucker said the Union has back-up power that should prevent people from getting stuck.

Tucker became aware of the problem around 9 a.m. this morning and contacted Union-goers and vendors.

“We walked around and told everyone that we could find,” Tucker said.

Employees for The Store in the University Union said they had been warned to halt transactions until power could be restored.

Tucker said he would contact the Golden One contractor in order to resolve the problem with the “eaten cards”.