According to UNH Alerts, the university campus was without power for about 90 minutes. Updates were pushed to students via text messages and emails saying that both PSNH and UNH officials were working to resolve the issue. Campus, however, remained open even with the lack of electricity to light up classrooms.
I live in an apartment on Madbury Road right across the street from Sigma Nu, in the spine of downtown Durham. There was power when I woke up this morning at about 9 a.m., and all was well.
However, when I arrived to my work-study job at Pettee Hall on the opposite side of campus about thirty minutes later, I noticed the cave-like darkness, and hoards of students outside their classrooms socializing in confusion.
As soon as I arrived at the second floor (I had to take the stairs instead of the elevator), my boss alerted me that the building was out of power, and had been left in darkness for about an hour. Obviously, the dreary, overcast October morning didn't help the situation.
So, students just stood outside classrooms, while faint light from sparse windows illuminated hallways. Professors waited patiently to try and teach a class without light, computers, or PowerPoint presentations. I maintained busy by doing "busy-work," since I couldn't access any of our computers due to the outage.
At 11:17 a.m., the UNH Alert system notified campus that, "UNH Police have issued an All-Clear. Power restored to Campus."
Suddenly, as I was trying to sort out paperwork in the darkness, Pettee's power supply seemed to roar to life, as with the rest of campus; the lights flickered on, and the air circulatory supply breathed a sigh of relief.
It's just another day on campus, where the status quo abruptly changed, and is now restored.
As J.K. Rowling would say, "All is well."
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