On Monday, 2,800 people experienced a power outage that lasted until after midnight. It was an inconvenience no doubt with air conditioners no longer keeping us comfortable, our phones not being able to charge and the eerie darkness that surrounded the buildings on Broad Street was just slightly creepy.

There was, however, a light at the end of the tunnel as we at the Selma Times-Journal were struggling to find a way to get our paper out to you all as quick as possible.

With the help of volunteers from Elkdale Baptist Church, we were able to load up our server, laptops, our managing editor and our sports writer to the church’s fellowship hall to continue production as we sent our pages to Clanton to be printed.

The volunteers at Elkdale had already worked a long day with the United for the City 2018 camp that was going on and still opened their doors for us to allow us to come in and use their Wi-Fi and to even eat a very late dinner.

We want to thank the Elkdale Church volunteers who allowed us to set up an impromptu office in their fellowship hall and allowed us to continue our production.

The power may have been out throughout Selma, but the power of community was strong.