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Peterborough
keeps the peace during power failure It was peace, love and power failure in Peterborough Aug. 14 as the sixties came back in more than ways than one. The night without light had many disruptions but it also had its moments of magic. As darkness fell and candles were lit, friendly people took to their front porches and sidewalks. Families sat down to board games and neighbours came out on lawns to talk. People flocked to the downtown area to sit at pubs with torchlit patios and buy hot dogs from sidewalk vendors. “It was a beautiful night to walk around the city,” said Helena Armstrong, enjoying the evening on the crowded patio at the Peterborough Arms. “Everybody is friendly tonight.” “They should turn the power off once a month during the summer,” suggested Heather Klassen, 22, dining at Hot Belly Mama’s while visiting the city. “You can see the stars and dine by candlelight.” While there were a lot of people in the streets, they were generally in a positive mood," said Sgt. Rob Hotston of the city police. "It was a novel situation for most people, born after the last major outage in 1965." At one George Street restaurant, several barbecues were wheeled outside to serve patrons at an improvised sidewalk patio. Not all was sweetness and light police said. There were five break-ins attributed to people taking advantage of the darkness and more calls than usual, but the city came out of the situation in good shape, Hotston said. Downtown, a man moved to the middle of the Simcoe-George intersection to help control traffic which was moving slowly but steadily as motorists showed courtesy and restraint. Doctors were in the middle of the last operation of the day at Peterborough Regional Health Centre when the lights went out. There was a short, tense pause before the emergency generators kicked in and the operation was completed successfully, according to hospital officials. Peterborough Mayor Sylvia Sutherland and the emergency control group met in the evening at the city police station to assess the situation. Sutherland was pleased with the quick response from city and country officials in the group. Visitors were herded out of the hospital after the power went off and visits were cancelled, with emergency surgery only available. A wail of sirens erupted shortly all over the city after the outage began. Alarm systems are automatically triggered in many buildings and fire trucks had to respond to all the alarms. They also successfully rescued people stuck in elevators in about six cases. |
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