GILROY
– Gavilan College’s first day of the spring semester got off to
a shaky start Thursday afternoon when several classes were stopped
short due to a Pacific Gas
&
amp; Electric power outage.
GILROY – Gavilan College’s first day of the spring semester got off to a shaky start Thursday afternoon when several classes were stopped short due to a Pacific Gas & Electric power outage.
More than 1,200 Gilroy utility customers on the south part of town were put in the dark between 2 and 4 p.m. Thursday when a utility box in the area blew a fuse.
Contrary to rumors that swirled around the Gavilan College campus, the power outage was not related to a Morgan Hill accident involving a pick-up truck driven off rain-dampened Watsonville Road and into a power pole near Bowden Avenue.
About 2,700 PG&E customers in the vicinity of the accident lost power for 30 minutes or more. The accident resulted in no injuries to the driver and involved no other vehicles, Morgan Hill fire officials said.
The Gilroy power outage affected the area east of Highway 101 on the south part of town and the residential area around Gavilan College. Some Gavilan classes were cut short Thursday afternoon, but courses held in classrooms with plenty of windows continued.
“Classes that need computers and overhead projectors naturally shut down, but a lot were able to continue with no problem,” Gavilan spokesperson Jan Bernstein Chargin said.
Power was restored to most of the affected area before sunset, around 4 p.m. Power did not return to some customers until 6:30 p.m., PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith said.
“We’re thankful we (didn’t) need to cancel any night classes,” Chargin said. “Things are crazy enough on the first day of school.”
Office-dependent administrators at the school had less luck.
“It’s been an interesting afternoon, about all the work we can do is call people on our phone,” said Fran Lozano, the school’s dean of liberal arts.
One of the area’s businesses impacted by the power failure was Marx Towing. The company closed its office since its phone system was affected, but kept trucks on the road for tow service.
“We’re the kind of business that can’t afford to have the power down,” Operations Manager Jim Martin said. “We need to be running 24/7.”
Martin said the company forwarded its calls to an answering service and alerted law enforcement officials that drivers could be contacted that way.
“Everything is back to normal this morning,” Martin said Friday.
