The BG News

Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Jordan Flower Left in the dark: When the lights went out in Ward 1, students and local residents gathered at bars like Howards Club H. Because there was no power, the scheduled bands could not play, but the Howard's staff put out candles so people could continue to gather.

Media Credit: Jordan Flower Lights Out: Harshman sits darkened last night on Wooster and Mercer streets after a power outage hit parts of the city. Some students in dorms used laptops and cell phones to light their room. There were numerous reports of students being unable to enter dorms because the PED lock system lost power. The blackout lasted until just after 10:30 p.m.

Nobody quite knew how to handle last night's power outage - so, walking around campus, there ended up being a little bit of everything.

Building after building around campus was pitch black with the exception of the occasional emergency light in a stairwell or lobby.

Kohl, Hanna, Harshman, University, South, West, Offenhauer, McDonald - the list went on and on.

No streetlamps, no blue-light emergency lamps, no stoplights.

Meanwhile, it kept raining. Puddles reached ankles in some places, but they couldn't be seen until it was too late.

Lightning lit up the night sky, slowly moving to the north.

From one end of East Wooster Street to another, pitch black.

City police officers quickly dispatched to major intersections, lighting flares and directing traffic.

They were lucky enough to not receive any calls for service during the outage, according to Bowling Green Police Sgt. Mark McDonough, who watched over the intersection at Wooster and South College streets.

Traffic in affected areas was "pretty orderly," McDonough said.

"Once we get the 911 calls that the power's out we always immediately send officers to those intersections," he said.

Ten Bowling Green police officers were working on the streets during the outage, a dispatcher at the station said.

No University or city representatives could be reached at press time to provide a cause for the blackout.

Everywhere, seeing more than a few feet in any direction became a chore. Wandering students and safety workers chatted on cell phones, visible only thanks to passing car headlights.

Back on campus, some were lucky enough to have backup power thanks to emergency generators, but nobody seemed to be quite sure of what had happened, or when things would be back to normal.

All they knew was the obvious - the power was out.

So what did everybody do?

Students in different buildings faced different conundrums.

At Jerome Library, students who had been using computers stood around, unsure of what to do next. Enough emergency lights shone to let people wander through the stacks, and students sitting in study groups plugged away at their work.

In Kreischer-Ashley, an H20 Bible study group was booted from their dining hall abode and took up shop next to the darkened big-screen TV. Just down the hall, next to the elevator shaft, a group of students stood around clapping and dancing.

Just outside, the loud pop of a firecracker shot through the night, turning heads.

Up the street, in front of a fraternity, a few men had stripped down to bow ties and tight bathing suits.

Students seemed to be able to find their own versions of fun.

They sat outside the windows of speeding cars, or cracked open some beers in dorm rooms lit by lights from laptops.

They sat and smoked outside in groups - the outage meant their PEDs wouldn't operate, and so they made do.

Others just went about their evening.

Another firecracker went off, this time close to the Union.

Then, at 10:32 p.m., everything lit up just as it had turned off, and the cheers could be heard from far down the street.

Minutes later in the Union, Wendy's opened back up, and everything started returning to normal.

City News Editor Lisa Halverstadt and Reporter Tim Sampson contributed.

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