Some Dickinson students were unconcerned despite the power outage on Sunday, Dec. 2, while others experienced minor inconveniences. 

A vehicle hit a utility pole causing power outages to some buildings on and off campus, according to Red Alert text and emails which were sent to students around 2 a.m. 

The same Red Alert text and email also stated that Pennsylvania Power and Light were the ones repairing the utility pole. Students could stay in the HUB, where the power was unaffected, if their building had lost power and they felt uncomfortable.

Dee Danser, assistant vice president of compliance and campus safety, stated that the power outage occurred after 1 a.m. “with power coming back on shortly after it went out, though for several hours we did have some instances where the power blinked off for short periods of time.”

Danser also said that the Facilities Management office on 5 North Orange St. were without power for several hours.

Julien Herpers ’19 lost power while watching Netflix around 1:15 a.m. Herpers was “not affected at all” and able to finish his Netflix episode of ‘Babylon Berlin.’ “In fact, it was relaxing,” Herpers said. “It was inconvenient when the lights turned backed on because I was prepared to go to sleep and I had to get up and turn all the lights back off.”

Samuel Banuelos ’19, who lives in the apartments on 141 West High St., said that “our heater went out, it took between 30-45 minutes for the power to come back and in that time, the temperature of the apartment definitely dropped.” 

Tayla Lubit ’22 and Maddi Vlattas ’22 were both in Drayer during the power outage.  

Vlattas was asleep when she “heard a bunch of people screaming in the hallway.”

Lubit said that when the lights went out “people were running around the Drayer third floor and there was some yelling and giggling. It was fun actually. It brought the community together and we were united in our terror.”

Patrons of the Carlisle Diner were also affected by the power outage, and they also seemed to have a good time.

“I saw the transformer start sparking the blow. Everything went black,” said Kim French, a waitress at the Carlisle Diner. “So, everyone in the diner lit up their cell phones. We managed to finish serving everybody their food and they all had a great time eating by cell phone lights some even put cups over their lights to make lanterns; it was cool. We let everyone finish eating. And sent them home. The power was finally restored about 5 a.m.”