By Michael J. ARVIZU

Glendale Community College experienced its second power outage in less than a week on Tuesday evening, forcing the college to close the campus and cancel classes.

After the power could not be restored Tuesday evening, college interim Superintendent/President Dr. Jim Riggs made the decision to cancel Wednesday classes and close the campus. Power was restored as of  Wednesday night.

According to GCC police, workers were on campus Tuesday night and most of Wednesday trying to assess the cause of the power failure. The GCC website and telephone system were also offline.

GCC police utilized the college’s text alert system to notify students and staff about the ongoing emergency. The college’s Twitter and Facebook accounts also posted updates. On the college’s Facebook page, students expressed a mix of joy and frustration on learning the college had closed for the day. No injuries were reported at the college as a result of the power failure, and police blocked off the entrances to the college.

The first power failure at GCC occurred Nov. 30, prompting college officials to cancel classes and close the campus in the middle of the teaching day. That outage was caused by an electrical equipment failure on the campus, and power was restored a day later. It was not clear Wednesday afternoon if this same piece of equipment caused Tuesday’s outage.

GCC experienced a major outage in 2001, trapping a student in an elevator when the power failed.

This story has been altered since being originally posted on Dec. 5, 2012.

  Michael J ARVIZU