Power outage cancels classes at Orange Coast College

A power outage forced thousands of students and faculty members off Orange Coast College’s campus Thursday afternoon.

Doug Bennett, the Costa Mesa college’s executive director of advancement, said he was in his office working on his computer just before 2 p.m. when the power went out abruptly.

When college officials realized the electricity was not going to be restored immediately, they decided to cancel all classes, including night sessions that usually run until 10 p.m.

“We made announcements over the loudspeaker to let students know what’s going on,” Bennett said. “Traffic got pretty backed up because everyone was leaving at the same time.”

No outages were reported in the surrounding area.

It was unclear whether the hot weather contributed to the outage, officials said.

Southern California Edison crews were trying to determine the cause. Edison officials said the outage likely is related to equipment failure.

Although officials said they expect power to be restored for Friday’s classes, they asked students to check OCC’s website, orangecoastcollege.edu, for updates.