Power cut causes campus chaos
By Steven Porlock
A power-cut on Harrow campus caused chaos yesterday lunchtime.
The whole site was affected as computers crashed, lifts stopped and the
canteen tills ceased to work.
Venda Bedier, the canteen manager, said they had lost a lot of money during
the power cut at lunchtime. Staff had tried to struggle though the crisis
using calculators but still lost a lot of revenue.
“We had to take all the hot food off and cook fresh food once the
power had returned. There was a lot of wasted food today.”
“We really should have a back-up generator to prevent this from happening.
I was working on staff wages when the cut happened and I lost all my work
on the computer. I’m sure it happened to a lot of people.”
The Learning Resource Centre on campus said they also managed to cope
- although students didn’t know what to do.
Sally Barnard, the LRC Deputy Manager, said: “In the end we decided
to evacuate on health and safety grounds but we couldn’t use the
PA system which made life a bit more difficult.”
London Electricity said the power cut was due to a fault in a high voltage
underground cable. This was put down to either wear and tear or damage
from maintenance work.
The suggestion of any sinister reasons for the power cut was rejected
with the claim that seven thousand such incidents occur each year.