Power outage at Algonquin College stuns students and staff
Students were rattled on March 17 when the power went out at Algonquin College during a blustery winter day, forcing the school to cancel classes.
Environmental Canada issued warnings about cold temperatures, ice and strong wind.
Around 27,000 customers across eastern Ontario lost power, according to to Hydro Ottawa’s outage map. The outage reached parts of western Quebec as the day went on.
The power flickered numerous times during early morning classes at Algonquin College, finally completely going out around 9:30 a.m.
Students found the dark atmosphere unsettling at first.
Those living in residence woke up with the lights going on and off which made them scared and confused.
“The power outage that took place (March 17) was traumatic for me,” said Tye Rhode, second-year graphic design student who lives in residence. “I woke up at about 9 a.m. The lights were flickering on and off. I was a little bit spooked at first. I realized all of the stuff in my fridge and freezer was going to go bad, if the power didn’t come back on soon. I was scared about that, and I didn’t know what to do. Power was out, Wi-Fi was out, I couldn’t do any work. The power was out everywhere. It was really creepy, but really cool too.”
Most classrooms have projectors and computers necessary for course activities. The college cancelled classes when the power outage dragged on for hours.
The sinks in the bathroom weren’t working and neither were the hand driers.
Starbucks was forced to close during the outage because the employees were unsure of what else to do.
“I was working when it went, so we weren’t really sure what was going on, because it flickered on and off a couple times, before it actually turned off,” Starbucks employee Abigail Gilmore said. “Once it actually went out, we were unsure of what to do. We were waiting around for almost two hours before we got a decision to close the store.”
Cafeteria workers also had to make some changes. The debit machines and registers went down in the cafeteria and students could only pay with cash.
