A powerful Wednesday at Saddleback

Emergency power lights softly illuminate the student media lab after power went out a second time around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. | Anna Casper

The autonomy of a power outage
Rise and shine from Saddleback at 8:28 a.m. Here we go:

Saddleback College – Campus wide power outage. Please stand by for information on start times. We will be sending regular updates

Four minutes later at 8:32 a.m. Don’t get your hopes up:

Saddleback College – Please do not come to campus until power has been restored, at which time delayed start times will be announced.

In case the students didn’t get the memo, another text was sent out again five minutes later at 8:37 a.m. Nothing new: 

Saddleback College – Campus wide power outage. Please do not come to campus until power has been restored, at which time delayed start times will be announced.

Bracing ourselves for what the next text will say.

One hour later. Finally, something to look forward to:

Saddleback College – Classes are resuming. Thank you for your patience this morning while we resolved the power outage.

Parking lots are full, students are struggling for a spot, teachers are power walking to class. With four students attending class and no time to waste, teachers log onto canvas just in time for the screen to go black and lights to shut off. 

A text comes through and all of the students’ eyes fall to their phones. Sike:

Saddleback College – Power is out again campus-wide. Please stand by as we assess. Updates will be sent when information becomes available. Thank you.

Shocking.

The time is ticking before another text comes through:

Saddleback College – Classes are canceled through 2 pm. An update will be provided regarding classes after that, when the status of the outage is known.

Students are stressed about midterms and deadlines before spring break.

To add more excitement to their day, another text is received:

Saddleback College – We continue to address the power outage. Classes are canceled through 2 pm. An update will be provided regarding c https://rgrp.pro/asLPBfq 

One hour later and we are back to where we started:

Saddleback College – Classes have been canceled for the remainder of Wednesday, March 15 due to the campus-wide power outage. Please co https://rgrp.pro/tgbwu7C

To say the least, it was a powerful day here at Saddleback.

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