Employees sit in the dark in an office at SDF building in Sector V during Tuesday’s power cut. (Amit Datta)

Tannika Chakraborty sprang to action the moment power supply was restored to her Salt Lake home at 12.30am on Wednesday. The bed looked inviting but she did not dare relax even a second under the fan, which was finally moving. The pump had to be switched on, buckets and bottles filled, gadgets charged and information obtained from TV and Internet on the power situation.

A couple of hours earlier, she and her family members had gone around BD block, finding out if their neighbours could spare some water and whether their cellphones could be charged for a few minutes, and returned disheartened.

“We had given up hope of power being restored before morning. But the moment the electricity came back, my mother rushed to switch on the pump and my father the water purifier. We then opened the taps and filled the buckets and connected our cellphones and laptops and my iPod to the power outlets,” said the 24-year-old management student.

The scene was similar in most households with residents fearing that power would go off again. In some homes, parents prepared tiffin and filled water bottles at night so that they did not struggle to send their children to school in the morning even if there was no power.

“Since Salt Lake had never experienced such power disruption before, we did not know how to cope with it. I charged all the gadgets and went to sleep only around 2.30am,” said Shibnath Bose, 67, a retired bank official who lives in CB block.

Many stayed glued to the TV past their bedtime for the latest on the country’s power situation.

“I could get updates from friends who could watch TV as long as my phone was on. After that, I was sitting in the dark, wondering how bad the situation was,” said Suprakash Lahiri, who runs a printing business.

Bidhannagar Municipality deputed employees to distribute water from the tanks in the township through the night.

“Our officials were present at all the water tanks in the township and started working immediately after power was restored. We were also ready to provide water to households from tankers in case of an emergency,” said Moloy Mukherjee, executive officer, Bidhannagar Municipality.

The contingency measures were unnecessary with power supply returning to normal on Wednesday.

Offices in Sector V too had prepared for another day without power.

“All the companies started storing drinking water the moment power was restored. We had barrels of diesel ready to operate generators in case there were power cuts on Wednesday. Moreover, several firms alerted their offices in other states and even clients abroad about the situation and the possibility of disruption in work in case of a power failure,” said Kalyan Kar, managing director, Infinity Knowledge Ventures Private Limited.

The blackout also alerted Sector V companies about the need to have power backups in place.

“The SDF building has always relied on uninterrupted power supply and never bothered to install a generator. On Tuesday, while other offices functioned, we had to empty the building. We will soon sit with Webel officials and ask them to immediately install power backup systems,” said Suparno Moitra, managing director, Nasscom.