This was the night the lights went out in Wilkes-Barre. Not the whole city, mind you. Just at the brand-spankin'-new, we've-been-waiting-for-this-for-years, tonight's-the-first-night-we're-open downtown movie theater! Sometime around 8:15 or so, the entire place lost power. One of the PR types called it a "major electrical problem." No kidding.
About 1600 Chamber of Commerce types and their families were there to enjoy the "soft" opening, when they were all told to get out! The power eventually came back on, but the theater cancelled the 9 p.m. shows - just in case the power didn't stay on. Folks only paid $1 to get in, so anyone who still has a ticket stub from tonight will get free admission - and free popcorn - for a movie between Saturday and Wednesday. The rest of us will have to pay the buck - and pay for the popcorn!
Anyway, the theater is not the only new building in the area to have these power problems. The new airport terminal opened last month, and about two days after opening, the entire terminal lost power for a couple of hours! Then, a similar problem happened a week or so ago with a jetway at the terminal.
Way to make an impression. Let's hope this doesn't become a trend ...
UPDATE 6/25/06: On Saturday, theater management blamed the outage on a lightning strike.