Ice, this may explain why we're not getting feeds from the CME:
chicagotribune.com
Power gradually being restored downtown in fire's aftermath
A circuit breaker at a ComEd substation at 828 S. Jefferson St. caught fire Sunday, causing a downtown power outage. (Tribune photo by James Kilbury)
By Nathaniel Sheppard Jr.
and Lisa B. Song
Tribune Staff Writers
October 8, 2000
A Commonwealth Edison spokeswoman said late this afternoon that power would be restored to a large section of downtown Chicago by 8 p.m.
At least 12,000 ComEd customers lost power at 12:45 p.m. when a circuit breaker at a substation at 828 S. Jefferson St. exploded and caused a fire that shut down other circuit breakers. The fire knocked out power in an area bordered by Chicago Avenue on the north, 24th Street on the south, Lake Shore Drive on the east and Ashland Avenue on the west.
"We will have all customers restored by 8 p.m. and that should bring us back to normal operations," Pam Strobel, an executive vice president for ComEd, said at a 5:30 p.m. news conference.
Police on foot directed pedestrians and motorists through a maze of darkened traffic signals in the early afternoon, but it was impossible to keep up in some areas, leading to snarls as bad as any business day rush hour. In some areas, motorists drove up on sidewalks to reach side streets in an effort to escape the mess.
The Chicago Transit Authority shut down its subway and elevated trains because there was no power for its signal and communications systems, but trains were able to reach stations first so no passengers were trapped. Fire officials said several people were rescued from stalled elevators, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
CTA Frank Kruesi said at the news conference that the agency had begun running "test" trains on the Red and Green Lines to see whether signals and communications were working.
"We are testing and want to be sure our system is safe for our customers and employees," he said.
"Thank God this happened on a Sunday," said Officer Thomas Donegan, a police department spokesman.
Officials said the substation is the same one where problems on Aug. 12, 1999 forced ComEd to shut off power to parts of the Loop in the middle of the day. That outage, following a string of earlier blackouts, brought national attention to ComEd, leading to the forced resignation of a top official and promises by the utility to upgrade its aging infrastructure.
By late Sunday afternoon, firefighters were cleaning up the substation and it was once again furnishing power to parts of downtown, including to some of the high-rises in the Loop.
"There were no injuries, there is no emergency and we are in pretty good shape," Chicago Fire Commissioners James Joyce said of the substation fire.
William Abolt, Chicago's environment commissioner, who blasted the utility after last year's outages, said the city would once again demand answers from ComEd officials.
"There shouldn't be any loss of power like this," Abolt said. "As soon as we have power back on we'll start worrying about why it didn't work and make sure it doesn't happen again."
John T. Hooker, a ComEd vice president for distribution, said most of the equipment at the station is new and the problem was not weather related. But he could not say what led to the outage.
As power began to return, police blocked cars from coming downtown and tried to expedite traffic away from trouble spots. Their efforts were complicated by the end of the Chicago Bears-New Orleans Saints football game at Soldier Field, which dumped thousands of cars into the traffic mess.
Some pedestrians had it just as bad.
Lori Ponton, 28, of Chicago, was able to get a train downtown after visiting her parents in the suburbs, but her boyfriend couldn't make it downtown by car to take her home. She was stranded on Michigan Avenue with four pieces of luggage and a bewildered expression.
"I called the RTA to make sure everything was all right and they said there were no delays. I get up here and the police aren't letting anybody down here," she said. "I have no way of contacting my friend to tell him where to go, where to meet me."
On what would otherwise be an extremely busy shopping day on North Michigan Avenue, shops such as Atlas Galleries, 535 N. Michigan Ave., and Virgin Records, 540 N. Michigan Ave., shut their doors for the afternoon and hung "Closed. Power Out" signs in their windows.
The Hotel Intercontinental at 505 N. Michigan Ave. was without power from about 1-4:30 p.m. Most were milling about the lobby unable to check in or check out because the main computer system was down, according to Katrin Bressner, a front desk clerk.
Some guests were briefly stuck in elevators before emergency crews were able to reach them, Bressner said. "Everyone had to walk up and down the stairs ... all 41 floors," she said.
A wedding reception was canceled because of the blackout and moved to the nearby Westin River North hotel, Bressner said.
Stores at Water Tower Place, 845 N. Michigan Ave., were not affected by the outage. Marty Lang, a visitor from Albuquerque, N.M., said she was inside the mall shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch when the blackout hit. "I walked outside onto Michigan Avenue and noticed something wasn't right," Lang said.
The outage affected clusters of stores such as Niketown, 669 N. Michigan Ave., and Sony, 663 N. Michigan Ave. But the Eddie Bauer store at 600 N. Michigan Ave., and Crate & Barrel, 646 N. Michigan Ave., were functioning normally.
"We have our own generators so we were fine," said Carol Ko, a customer service representative at Crate & Barrel. "Around noon we knew something was strange when a lot of people started coming in at once, and it suddenly got really busy," Ko said.
It also was business as usual for the Nordstrom store and the Shops at North Bridge, 520 N. Michigan Ave., said Patrick Duffy, store director at C.D. Peacock, a jeweler in the mall.
Taking advantage of Nordstrom's bright lights and "open" sign were South Siders Robert Trautmann and his family, who were on a mini-vacation in the heart of the city when the blackout occurred. They said they were stuck waiting for the computers at the Marriott Resort Suites at 540 N. Michigan Ave. to boot up so they could check in.
"We need to kill some time, so we might as well go shopping," Trautmann said. |
