By Edward Lander

Multiple campus buildings are currently running off rented diesel generators after sustaining damage during severe thunderstorms on Sept 3. 

In an emailed statement to The Eyeopener on Sept. 9, Facilities Management and Development said the Victoria Building, Image Arts and The Image Centre are being temporarily run on generator power.

“TMU experienced flooding in the basement of the Victoria Building during the storm on September 2, as well as damage to electrical infrastructure within the building,” they wrote.

According to the statement, the damage affected the power supply to surrounding buildings.

The storms, which saw a month’s worth of rainfall hit Toronto in just a few hours, according to an Environment Canada climatologist, also led to outages for more than 65,000 Toronto Hydro customers.

In an update to media on Sept. 3, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said Toronto Fire Services responded to over 1,000 calls for service during the storm.

The outage saw the buildings close for three days, leading to the cancellation of some Frosh events and activations including the Free Store, organized by the Sustainability Office.

The G. Raymond Chang School for Continuing Education, which also lost power, remains closed. The university said this building mostly contains administrative activities. 

The university told The Eye they are working with external partners, including Toronto Hydro, to restore power. 

In an email to The Eye, Toronto Hydro said they, “helped safely isolate the affected electrical equipment so TMU can assess the damage and carry out repairs.” 

The university and Toronto Hydro were unable to provide a timeline on when repairs will be completed.