Students living in North Carrick residence hall had to find another place to sleep Wednesday night after a power outage in the building caused the University Department of Housing to close the dorm.

Freshmen Noah Tuten said he was at Wal-Mart when he got an email from UT's Department of Housing telling him he would need to pack up his things and be out of the building by 8:30 p.m.

Tuten said their electricity was cut off after a circuit board caught fire in the basement around 3:30 a.m. The power was off all day Wednesday, and Tuten said he was bracing for a night in the dark but wasn't worried.

"The temperatures are dropping, and I feel like they know best, but it certainly would have been nice to know a little earlier. "-Noah Tuten, North Carrick resident

Around 7 p.m., residents received an email saying, "As you are aware, power is currently out in all of North Carrick Hall except for electrical service to the basement and first floors and all emergency systems. Due to this emergency, North Carrick Hall will close at 8:30 p.m. tonight and residents will not be able to access the building until 7:00 a.m. Thursday."

"I'm not going to pretend to know the depth of the situation, and they all seem like good people trying to fix the problem as fast as they can, but it's pretty irritating to get an email while I was actually in Walmart that says, 'Hey, in an hour and a half you need to get your stuff and find a place to stay tonight," Tuten said.

A friend of Tuten's was at work at the time the email was sent, so he didn't learn the news until it was already too late to go get his overnight items. He, too, had to make a trip to Walmart to buy clothes just to wear to class on Thursday, Tuten said.

"The temperatures are dropping, and I feel like they know best, but it certainly would have been nice to know a little earlier," he said.

Luckily, Tuten has friends in the Knoxville area he can stay with. Students who couldn't find their own place to stay were placed in other residence halls for the night.

North Carrick will re-open to students at 7 a.m. Thursday morning.

More details to come as they develop.