Capitol Staffers Work by Flashlight as 90-Minute Outage Hits Statehouse

Power went out for an hour and a half in and around the Capitol on Friday, forcing staffers to work by flashlight and Gov. Pete Wilson to cancel a speaking engagement.

The darkened Capitol was quickly closed to visitors by State Police, although many secretaries and legislative aides remained inside. The Legislature was not in session and its members were already out of town to begin their customary three-day weekend.

A faulty circuit caused power to go off at 10:15 a.m., according to a spokeswoman for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. It was restored at 11:45 a.m. The outage also affected some of the adjacent downtown area.

During the outage, Senate Sgt. at Arms Tony Beard and Assembly Sgt. at Arms Charles Bell patrolled hallways with flashlights, escorting tourists and visiting schoolchildren out of the building.

Wilson was conducting a media event at a suburban elementary school when the power went out. He returned before the outage ended, but worked in his office, which was supplied with auxiliary power. Security around Wilson’s office was tightened as a routine precaution.

The governor canceled a scheduled luncheon address to members of the Sacramento Press Club at a nearby hotel because the lack of power prevented preparation of the food.