A power outage occurred on campus on Wednesday, Nov. 9. around 4:30 p.m.
According to Pierce College Sheriff Deputies, all evening classes are cancelled due to the wide power outage.
**Updated on 6:30 p.m. Quotes added by Taylor Arthur and Salvador Fariaz**
Pierce College student Hannah Nuce was listening to music while doing homework in the library and noticed the power outage.
“About 30 minutes the power was still out and one of the librarians who was walking back and forth didn’t say anything,” Nuce said. “He finally said, you guys need to evacuate.”
Nuce noticed students were walking towards the exits and realized everyone was leaving campus due to the power outage.
Nuce had a spanish class later that evening and it was cancelled due to the power outage.
Pierce student, Alyssa Dibenedetto was in the gym charging her phone and noticed her phone stopped charging.
“I was charging my phone and suddenly it wasn’t charging so that’s really weird and I went to the Student Services and I asked are you closed and they said, ‘No the power just went out,’ and apparently there was an ambulance and the cops are here and I don’t know what’s going on,” Dibenedetto said. “From what I heard there’s a power outage, but it could be more.”
Pierce student, Mohamadamin Shoorefhi, was in philosophy class and his class didn’t react to the power outage.
Sheriff deputies on bikes notified classrooms that the campus was now closed and for them to make their way out.
“The power on the campus went out approximately an hour ago,” Deputy Guerrero said. “For everybody’s safety we’re closing the campus per [order of] the college president.”
Tylee Low, a member of the Pierce soccer team said they were not notified or aware of the power outage or the evacuation during the team’s soccer practice.
“We didn’t even know,” Low said. “We got a phone call after practice was over and they said ‘hey, campus is closed. You guys have to leave.’ We didn’t notice the power was out because we play in daylight. No one thought anything of it.”
“We were just sitting there, trying to realize what’s happening and eventually we just evacuated,” Shoorefhi said. “The emergency lights were still on. I wasn’t worried, power outages happen occasionally.”
Pierce student, Justin Heskett was in his philosophy class watching a movie and noticed everything turned off.
“Everyone was just sitting around and my professor said, ‘The one day I’m showing a movie, the power goes out,’ of course,” Heskett said.
Pierce student Golshid Eghbali, was in math class when the power went out and said they were using their phones to write notes.
“The sheriffs came to my math class and told them classes were cancelled for the rest of the evening.”
Sonja Boyce’s child plays soccer for an afternoon program at Pierce. They were at soccer practice when they were notified that the campus was closed.
“A police officer on a bicycle rode by and said there was a blackout and we had to leave,” Boyce said.
Guerrero said that the campus will be closed for the rest of the day but classes should resume Thursday, Nov. 10 as scheduled.
