Ablah library opened at 2 p.m. after being closed for most of the day Thursday.

Students waited outside, some for nearly an hour, worried that the doors would never open and they would be late on their work.

“I have a paper due,” senior finance major Waleed Alobaidi said around noon. “I just came here to do my paper.”

The breaker damage was caused Wednesday evening when a power outage  knocked out cable service just before game seven of the World Series. Cable was also restored around 2 p.m. Thursday, too late to be able to show breaking news of a plane crash at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.

Power was out on much of the east side of campus, which includes the Media Resources Center. The cable service for campus runs through the MRC, which results in cable outages when the building loses power, said Marty Heffner, chief engineer and manager of WSUTV.

Stacks supervisor John Stewart said the breaker resides in the old part of Ablah and the breaker itself is from the 1960s. Westar no longer has parts on-hand to fix the aged breaker, he said.

The outage affected the restrooms, Wi-Fi and the lights in the old part of the building.

Stewart said five people stayed in the library to answer phone calls and get books for people who needed them.

He also said they will “error on the side of caution” on library fines that may have been affected by the outage.

Woodrow DePontier, Director of Physical Plant, could not be reached for comment.