By By KATHIE HEMPEL / Niles Daily Star
NILES – First it rained and then the lights went out. Approximately 1,000 businesses and residence lost all or partial power shortly after 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
It was the second incident at Lakeland Hospital in Niles for the day. Phones had been knocked out before 6 a.m., the result of a possible lightening strike.
The power outage lasted about an hour and a half. Niles electric crews had all power back on shortly after noon.
"A fuse went down on one of three lines going in to the Broadway substation behind the old police and fire station. The station supplies power north of town to the courthouse, east to 15th St., south to Fort St. and west across the bridge to the hospital," Randy Stevens, electric superintendent for Niles, said.
Power crews have identified three possible causes for the fuse blowing out.
The transformer involved is old and it could be that it shorted out the fuse.
A 34 kV transmission line inside the conduit that runs under the bridge may have failed.
An underground circuit breaker downtown was tripped. There could be a problem with cable there.
Stevens said weather permitting, his crew would be conducting tests today to determine which scenario caused the power disruption. He had nothing but praise for the way his team pulled together to get power restored.
"An hour and a half is good time for losing a station. It's not a case where you just go. First there is the scramble to gather maps and crews. I'm real happy with this department," he said.
The transfer of power feeding from one station to the other requires the same careful routine power crews use when they shut down for service. Stevens naturally prefers the scheduled maintenance work over yesterday's surprise outage, however, he commends the way all city departments work together.
"The communications and teamwork between all departments in the city is great. Larry Lamb from the Fire Department was on the phone to me before 11 a.m. offering any assistance he could offer," Stevens said.
Fortunately, no locations with elevators, like the Four Flags Plaza or Lakeland Hospital, reported anyone being trapped.
Greeting visitors at the hospital for a blood donor clinic, volunteers said the phones and computers going down were a bigger disturbance than was the electric problem.
"I heard that the hospital was possibly struck by lightening sometime after 5 a.m. There has been some confusion with Dial-A-Ride and doctor's appointments," said Lisa Baker, a hospital volunteer from Baroda.
While the day was not without additional challenges for the hospital, Deb Johnson, Director of Operations at Lakeland, said the hospital was automatically switched to the Grant Street substation for power when the Broadway station went down. The phone situation was a bit more involved.
"Our in-house communications were fine and we're on top of it. Maintenance did a yeoman's job keeping things working normally. I'm very pleased with how we've transitioned and in any situation like this there is always the opportunity for lessons learned," Johnson said.
Night shift supervisor Jean Harbaugh was still on the job at 2:30 p.m.
"Everybody did their thing. We've all been making regular rounds to check on the patients and everything is fine," Harbaugh said.
Johnson credited Senior Vice President Dr. Loren Hamel with being a great tag team partner. While they were unable to determine if the phones going down were the result of a lightening strike, the phone systems were coincidentally scheduled to be switched to a new system at midnight anyway.
"We just have to move the time line up a bit," Johnson said.
By late afternoon lights were back on at the hospital.