Power outage at EC causes classes to be cancelled, elevators to be stuck, and a mechanical failure on Monday, Jan. 26, said ECPD Officer Esqueda.

A little while after 11 a.m. EC had a short black out, which caused the back up generators to provide power for lights. All around the campus, lights were out, bathrooms were not working and what might be the worst case, students were stuck in elevators.

In the Art and and Behavioral Science Building, U.S. History Professor Arthur Verge took it upon himself to go through all three floors of the building to check for potential students stuck in elevators. But Verge said, “Our first priority is to make sure no one is stuck.”

Although after going through all floors there were no students stuck in the elevators. Of course, that was not the case in the Math, Business and Allied Health Building. Officer Esqueda said there were several students stuck in the elevator. A locksmith named Roy Dietz, said several students were stuck since “about 11 o’ clock”.

Although the initial power outage was short, the problems that it caused were much longer. The seven students stuck in the elevator were in there for about an hour and a half.

A crew of seven firemen arrived on scene at 12:35 p.m. and from there they began to work on everything, although power was already back up. Five minutes later the elevator door was open and the elevator was slowly descending. All the students were cheering in the elevator.

Once released, a female student was asked if she could answer some questions, she said, “No. I have class.” As she walked away, she added, “Sorry.”

But other students were more willing to say a few things. Kevin Heinemann, 19, undecided major, said the experience was “terrible.” He also added, “We were going down the elevator around 11 and the lights shut off and everyone looked at each other, one girl couldn’t take it and started crying. And the worst part was I had to pee the whole entire time.”

Mariel, a worker in the Life Science division office said, “Everyone was calling here asking if we were also cancelling classes for our division. And I didn’t know if it was true.”