I am a bit claustrophobic so no; I do not particularly like elevators, especially after I was trapped in one for a time during a power outage.
I was working on the 5th floor of a 5 story and recently constructed office building and was riding the elevator all alone, down to the lobby to then go outside and take a mid-morning smoke break.
All of a sudden the elevator lurched to a stop and the lights went out – it was pitch black.
I assumed the emergency power would come on and the elevator would at least take me to the nearest floor and open, but no, it didn’t and so I used my cigarette lighter to get some light for a few seconds at a time.
After about another 5 minutes I could faintly hear sirens and thought – “OMG! The building is on fire and I’m stuck in the elevator”. I picked up the emergency phone but it was dead. Now I was starting to feel a bit panicky but at least I didn’t smell any smoke.
After 10 minutes more, I heard the sound of people and the squawks of fire department radios and then I started yelling “Hey. I’m in the elevator! Can anybody hear me?” but no one answered so then I started yelling even louder and finally someone answered and said, “We hear you and we are getting you out, just be patient.”
After about another 10 minutes the elevator finally moved and the door opened, not between floors but not exactly at the floor either so I had to be helped out by two firemen.
IIRC, there was a power outage because of a nearby transformer explosion but it caused a power surge that caused a malfunction of the building’s emergency generator.
It was the longest 30 minutes of my life and after that, for a long time I took the stairs both up and down, but in the long run that was good because I quit smoking and lost some weight : )
But what this poor woman went through, must have been horrific.
I too am clostrophic and elevators are not my favorite place.
Wow, what an experience.
Back in my kollege daze, I was in an elevator with what must have been 20 other students.
For some reason, the whole bunch of them started jumping up and down in unison.
The elevator stuttered a bit, but it kept running.
What was really scary was that a couple of weeks later that elevator was shut down for having bad cables.
I actually spent 45 minutes trapped on TOP of an elevator with the state elevator inspector when the controls quit during testing. Nice guy. Got to know him pretty well.