Blackout affects students, Greeley residents Sunday night
17,000 lose power as electrical explosion creates two-hour power outage
Published: Monday, October 1, 2012
Updated: Monday, October 1, 2012 03:10
Sunday evening, The Mirror office was busy getting a start on editing and producing this paper when the lights went out. But the newspaper was not the only entity affected by the blackout.
UNC students and Greeley residents were also forced to adjust their Sunday evening plans accordingly.
According to Mirror sources, the blackout was caused by an electrical explosion near the intersection of 16th Street and 23rd Avenue at 6:18 p.m. Power was restored at 8:17 p.m. The Greeley Tribune reported roughly 17,000 people were left without power during that time.
Sophomore communication major Sean D’Albergaria is a manager at Starbucks on Centerplace Drive and was forced to close the shop early and ask customers to leave.
“It was still light out, so we let them stay for a little bit,” he said. “I talked to my district manager and we ended up having to ask them quietly to leave and maybe go to another Starbucks, but that we couldn’t keep them at our store for safety reasons.”
On-campus retail was also affected by the power loss. English graduate student and Coffee Corner manager Daniel Rosson said Dining Services is prepared for situations like these, though.
“As far as the Coffee Corners are concerned, it was not really much of an issue because UNC has many backup generators and power sources,” Rosson said. “Even in a blackout or blizzard, we are almost always prepared and staffed to continue to serve the UNC community.”
According to Banner Health’s public relations department, one patient headed to the Northern Colorado Medical Center was diverted to another facility for precautionary reasons. The hospital used its backup generators to support its patients during the blackout.
Students hoping to get some studying done or use electricity leisurely were also handicapped by the outage.
Senior history major Quintin Myers said he was unable to continue working on a paper with the lights out, and when the power came back, he went back to what humans do best — passively watching a flickering box.
“The first thing we did was turn on the TV, continued to watch TV and then I checked my fantasy football team,” Myers said. “Then I went back to the paper I was working on before the power went out.”
Myers is undoubtedly hoping the power stays on in Dallas tomorrow evening, as the fate of his fantasy team rests on the shoulders of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.
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