Amtrak: in The Dark on Emergency Preparedness

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An Amtrak train station suffered a power outage yesterday, plunging commuters into darkness. Amtrak issued a press release touting their quick response. [q
url="http://cbs3.com/pennsylvaniawire/22.0.html?type=local&state=PA&category=n&filename=PA--TrainStation-Powe.xml"]An
electrical problem cut power at 30th Street Station for more than 90
minutes during the Friday afternoon rush, delaying 10 trains and
affecting about 300 passengers.

Power to the main waiting area, the food court and the platform went
out around 4:40 p.m., Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero said.

Some people were trapped in elevators for a few minutes, but fire crews quickly freed them, a fire department spokesman said.

Emergency lights were brought in at one platform, but only two
trains could be moved at a time, Romero said. A total of 10 Amtrak
trains were delayed, most for 10 to 15 minutes, although one was
delayed for 35 minutes, Romero said.

``We had difficulty boarding and deboarding because the platforms
were dark,'' Romero said. ``We didn't want anyone to be injured.''

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said its trains were not affected, spokesman Gary Fairfax said.

An increased police presence helped control the crowds and several
entrances were cordoned off to help control access. Officials used
bullhorns to make announcements to passengers, Romero said.[/q]
However, the days of press-release news may well be behind us, what with all
that (ahem) user-generated content flyin' around. It was only a matter
of time before commuters caught up in the incident published their own
version of the event. The first I read was that of Steve Rosenbaum, no stranger to user-generated content (remember MTV Unfiltered?). Steve was amongst the passengers plunged into darkness, and his own account of the event is a marked contrast to the press-release version:

[q
url="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-rosenbaum/philadelphias-train-terr_b_69226.html"]The
power went out throughout Philadelphia's 30th Street Station. Crowds
were left standing in the dark. Elevators stopped. There was no
emergency lighting.

And Amtrak sprung into action.

They hid.

The Associated Press report suggests a calm and orderly response
that was professional and proper. But I was there, it it was anything
but. I know when the power went out because the clock stopped. By 5:20,
more than half an hour past the outage - there was no emergency
lighting, no bullhorn, no one speaking to passangers, and one lonely
Amtrak Police officer who referred all questions to his 'boss' as he
was 'a working stiff' and his boss wouldn't come down from her office.

It was truly terrifying.

Not because there was panic. People acted well, given the complete
information black out... and Amtrak's remarkable lack of preparation,
leadership, crowd control, or what appeared to be any planning in the
event of some terrorist attack or natural disaster.

If this was dry run for how the billions of dollars have been spent to prepare for emergencies, we're in big trouble.

They didn't have flashlights. Not one. [/q]

While the power outage is of concern, the discrepancy between these two accounts is perhaps a larger story, highlighting (as it were) companies' and indivduals' sometimes-divergent relationships to the news and to mass media in the face of reportable events.