To the power outage, i can remember having heared something about a power outage in the news for that region. Not sure it it was same time or few days bevor, but could match.

To those claiming he just took the BTC and went along.

Please take into consideration the amount of BTC/SC traded on his site every day. With the fee of 0.2 or 0.4% for each transaction, he might over time have made a lot more BTC then by just taking the BTCs in his exchange at this early time.
So from my point of few just taking the BTC and scam all for the profit doesn't seem very likely. But maybe i overestimate the number of transactions done on his site every day and underestimate the BTC realy been transfered there.