Classes were cancelled at Bellevue College’s main campus until 5 p.m. due to a widespread power outage on Thursday, Sept. 22. The cause was unknown, but according to the vice president of administrative services Ray White, “we do know it was beyond our campus.”
“There’s been a lot of rumors about how widespread it was,” explained White about the power shutdown, “there were some apps that students were actually showing us that showed that there were power outages being reported in other parts of the state along the I-5 corridor.”
Because the cause of the outage was outside of the campus, BC was not able to handle the issue. A widespread power outage such as this would be under the jurisdiction of Puget Sound Energy and the city of Bellevue.
With the campus-wide power outage, BC students were evacuated with the help of Public Safety and members of BC’s faculty and staff. “I was very proud of how everybody handled the massive campus wide shut down and evacuation,” said White. This evacuation will be assessed in order to find ways to better facilitate the student community outside of campus if another similar event were to occur.
Although all daytime classes were cancelled, power came back shortly before 5 p.m. “We asked PSE to switch us to a different service. They are in the process of doing that now and that should get the power sooner than other areas,” said White.
Additionally, the power outage has caused the deadline for registration petitions to be extended to Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. Students who weren’t able to add a class on Thursday can apply to add one later.