Back on November 6th, 2011, I went to the overly large, metropolitan mall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, known as The Lehigh Valley Mall. My Metal mission was to pick up the new Arch Matheos – Sympathetic Resonance CD at f.y.e. and trail behind my family. We arrived there at around 12 noon, an hour after this mall opened. (This mall opens at 11:00 am on Sundays). Now, why was this trip to the mall scary and strange? Two words: power outage.
As I walked the first floor of this shopping mecca, I heard an ominous “hum” above me, circling within the atmosphere of this mall’s grand openness. Simultaneously, I heard what I would describe as “clickety clack” and “popping” sounds swirling all about and above me as well. Within a micro-second, I noticed the power go off in at least half of the stores I was near. Whoa. Not cool. My family members with me, on this mall excursion, were not flinching and wanted to ascend the stairs to the second level where the stores of their interest were. My family’s confidence was knowing their security blanket (me) was by their side. No way we were taking any elevator. As I came upon the second level of the mall, I noticed the anchor store JCPenney was without power, along with (again) at least half of the stores in my viewing area.
I felt very concerned, what was exactly happening? Honestly, I couldn’t help shake the awkward feelings of doom. I pointed out to my family members, where the two nearest main exits were, just in case some bad crap was going down. Hey man, who knows? As the family entered some teen clothing store (by a name I cannot pronounce), I asked a male clerk up front: “do power outages happen frequently at this mall?”. He seemed care-free about it all and just psyched that his store still had the power on. I then looked across to the other side of this second level of the mall. I was not pleased for f.y.e. had no damn power.
Arch / Matheos – Sympathetic Resonance
Metal Blade Records – Released September 13, 2011
This was not good. I needed to get my CD at f.y.e. and at the same token, I was still concerned about why this mall lost power to half of its stores. This f.y.e. even had that creepy Mad Max cage across its entrance too. As I walked towards this powerless f.y.e., the power came back on! The power outage seemed to last between ten to fifteen minutes. I did buy the Arch Matheos CD at f.y.e., asking the female associate there if power outages were common at this mall. She said: “of all the years I’ve been working here, this is a first”. As I exited f.y.e., I found it quite odd, that I did not witness one security guard on duty. None telling customers that everything is cool regarding power. None visible to me anyways.
Throughout this entire power outage at The Lehigh Valley Mall, never once was there a public service announcement. Absent was mall management telling the thousands of customers and employees of this power outage and of its status. Shame on The Lehigh Valley Mall facilities management for acting as though people are just supposed to go about their business, while we’re hearing strange noises in the mall’s atmosphere and witnessing half of the stores losing power. What is this mall’s safety protocol? Does it even have one?
Three words for this experience I had on this day: what the hell. I guess if no one else care’s why should I? Bullshit. I do care. Ever since 9/11, I do give a damn if I’m in a major metropolitan mall and suddenly the power goes out to half of the stores. Please note, there was no inclement weather happening on this day either, so blaming it all on a storm is null and void. It’s not that I was looking for Captain America to come rescue me and my family on this day. What I was hoping for was more real. I would have embraced some peace of mind in the form of communication between mall management and patrons.
Holy crap and Metal be thy name. Dumb and dumber oversees the safety procedures of the entire Lehigh Valley Mall. Stone’s Metal advice: When in doubt, get out… and I should have gotten my family and I out of that mall when the power started going off. Who’s to say that the same situation will turn out as okay the next time? I now know, that there will never be any proper safety and public service announcement given to the mall patrons and employees at The Lehigh Valley Mall whenever the next power failure occurs. Experience tells me so.
BEING IN A LARGE MALL THAT LOSES POWER IS SCARY.
A PUBLIC SERVICE & SAFETY ANNOUNCEMENT, ANYONE?
Stone.
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