News Feature
uts Down Due to Power Outage

OVER THE EDGE

Traffic jams plagued Prince George when power outages resulted in 4 way stops at all intersections.

JEREMY JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER

When UNBC’s students en-
tered class, it seemed like any
other day; A quiz here, a lab
there. It was just another nor-
mal day. But at about 2:45PM
on January 23, that’s where
things made a drastic change.
The lights, at first, flickered,
but then they all went. out.
Emergency lights turned on,
making the situation, at least,
manageable. After 5 or 10
minutes, students and faculty
members realised that this was
more than just a blown fuse.
Facility staff scrambled to find
the cause of the power outage
as more and more realised that
the power outage wasn’t just
spread throughout the city of
Prince George.

Unfortunately, at the time
of the incident, there was no
real way of assessing what ac-
| tually happened. In fact, de-

tails as of this writing are not
completely clear, but Over the
Edge has learned that the out-
age is currently being blamed
on equipment failure at the
Williston sub-station just south
of Prince George. It is believed
that the protective equipment
shut down Prince George and
plunged a large portion of B.C.
into darkness including Ques-
nel all the way north to Fort St.
John.- .

Meanwhile in Prince
George, news spread that,

while no one knew exactly
what caused the power outage,
but the power would be brought
back on by 4PM. While some
didn’t count on it, many staff
members asked administration
if it was OK to go home for the
day. Who could blame them
when so much of staff’s equip-
ment relies on_ electricity?
Power Point presentations were
no longer possible, E-mail be-
tween staff members became
impossible. Faculty members’
computers, which was once a
source for information, work,
research, planning and com-
‘munication was reduced down
to nothing more then a simple
black square in front of them.
The situation wasn’t any easier
for those in the midst of a class.
Labs were cancelled, tests were
rescheduled and lectures had to
be carried over to the next day
of class.

Shortly after it was realised
classes were going to be can-
celled; students were escorted
to the darkened halls in what
appeared to be a large social
gathering (much like what
the scene was in offices, help
desks, etc.) — most likely to
talk about the events. Most
students treated the situation
well, calling it an ‘interest-
ing set of events’ taking place.
After about an hour, most left
campus + which is when im-
provised signs appeared on
several classroom doors say-
ing things like ‘Class cancelled

due to power outage’ One math
professor improvised a class
by taking a dry erase marker
and using a large window pane
where the sun was shining and
teaching students who chose
to stay behind and get an extra
lesson in.

It also quickly came appar-

ent what was considered essen-
tial services. Nearly all food
services closed shop in part be-
cause the registers need electri-
city to run. The only one re-
maining open was the cafeteria
where employees relied on pen
and paper to keep track of the
orders and crunch the routine
math problems that goes with
being a cashier. The Over The
Edge office had only an emer-
gency light on, but the comput-

ers were shut down. Next door,

CFUR’s station experienced
a similar situation. The cam-
pus radio was taken off the air
and the only music coming out
was the sounds of an acoustic
guitar. Electro-magnets that
held doors open were unable
to do their duty. The campus
puzzle table’s light was also
taken out of commission due
to the events. The campus

‘Wi-fi network also became a

campus ‘Why-Try?’ network.
Perhapse the: only thing that
was running was the campus
ping-pong table.

This wasn’t the end of UN-
BC’s problems, a fire alarm
went off during the events. It
was rumoured that it was, be-

cause the UNBC’s server farm
which hosts the campus website
became dangerously hot due to
no air conditioning. Another
service that remained on was
the phone system. That helped
the flood of calls to facility
management inquiring on what
to do next or what was happen-
ing — unfortunately for the fa-
cilities office, the information

was not available as the staff

in the office huddled around a
battery operated radio to figure
that out — but the station soon
went off the air as well before
the CBC radio-casters were
able to find out anything essen-
tial other then that more than
Prince George was affected.
After classes were dis-
missed and faculty members
were relieved of their duties,
it seemed that other people in
Prince George called it quits as
well and went home early. Ma-
jor highways and roads became
jammed with traffic with every-
one in town leaving at once. It
was almost a second rush hour
for Prince George residents,
and the drive wasn’t made any
smoother by the fact that traffic
lights everywhere had shut off,
turning every intersection into
a four-way stop. The weather

also didn’t make anything eas-

ier since it clouded over and
rained shortly after the power
outage began.

The UNBC library held
out and posted a sign that said
‘If power is not restored by

January 26, 2007

4:30PM, we will close down
for the day. A rather different
sign compared to the sign post-
ed on the entrances that said
that all classes were cancelled.
Some students made the best of
the time and found a location
near the stairwell in the Bent-
ley center near the sunlight to
study in the quiet — the only
interrupters being students
looking for a better view of the

pulp mills which were said to

be putting an unusual amount
of smoke into the air.

At about 4:02PM, the
power flickered on. Emanat-
ing through the halls were the
sounds. of printers turning on
again with computer monitors
activating. While the core
ofthe campus turned on, not
every corner ‘of the campus
was immediately re-blessed
with the offerings of electricity
as some sections such as the
Canfor Theatre section and the
library classrooms struggled
to be well lit again. It wasn’t
until 4:30PM that the Univer-
sity Way lights turned on to
light the way back down into
town. Some busses also ran
late as daylight started to fade
from the city. While power
was being restored to the city, it
will certainly leave an interest-
ing memory or two for Prince
George residents — and not just
the UNBC student body.