Students poured out of the rec center into the dark, some shielding their eyes against the police lights just a little after 8 p.m.

On Wednesday night, the north end of the Boca campus experienced a power outage that lasted nearly an hour. An FAU PD supervisor would not comment on what caused the outage until the morning. The outage left the north end of campus along University Drive, including the stadium, the rec center, and Innovation Village Apartments without power.

“We don’t know [if people are stuck in the elevators] but we have an emergency situation,” said FAU Police on duty in IVA South.

Florida Power and Light was contacted immediately, according to FAU Police, and officers directed traffic along University Drive as most students headed back to their cars or dorms.

“It’s our job to keep students safe when something like this happens,” an FAU police officer told the UP.

Some students waited outside the gym, hoping to get back in to finish their workouts, but the rec center staff kept the doors locked, only allowing people back in to get their belongings from the locker room.

“This happened about two or three weeks ago. The power was out for about an hour,” said Jack Whidden, a junior secondary education major in IVA. About 45 minutes into the outage, only a handful of students still hung around, waiting for the gym to reopen.

Power was restored a few minutes after 9 p.m.

[Chase Kennedy contributed reporting of this story.]