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Show We Were Powerless Darkness Covers Davis By GARY R. BLODGETT TOM BUSSELBERG MARK D. MICKELSEN LAVORA WAYMENT Where were you when the lights went out shortly before noon on Thursday, Jan. 8? IF YOU were delinquent with paying your utility bill and a resident of Kaysville, you may have been one of several who rushed into city hall to protest the city shutting off their power."' " Or if you were a maintenance worker doing construction con-struction in Centerville, you may have though that it was you that caused the outage. And if your were standing in line to pay your last-minute taxes or renewing your driver's license (due the following day), you may have wondered if the state would accept your excuse and overlook the late penalty. THESE WERE a few of the more humorous things that happened during the power outage Thursday that extended throughout Utah and into neighboring states. In Davis County, the outage apparently caused no serious problems only a lot of inconveniences, according to spokespersons from various agencies and cities contracted by this news staff. BOUNTIFUL police department had some communication com-munication problems for a short time because the "Old" power generator used as a backup in cases like this failed to start right away. This forced dispatchers dis-patchers to use walkie-talkie units in place of the dispatch system that "blacked out" when the outage hit about 11:35 a.m. Traffic lights were out in all communities, but police said motorists seemed to be more courteous than other times. "Even with the traffic signals inoperable, inop-erable, motorists at most intersections stopped just as though it was a four-way stop," observed one motorist. ALTHOUGH there were no serious problems, there were a lot of inconveniences caused by the blackout. There was only one serious injury that to a BYU student in Provo who was seriously hurt when he fell four floors down an ' elevator shaft. And the only related death occurred to a calf that was on an electrical heart transplant at the U. of U. It died before auxiliary power could be restored. Department stores and businesses came to a complete com-plete standstill for several hours. Most stores closed and a few reopened a few hours later when power was restored. AT LAYTON Hill's Mall, Barbara Gann. promotion promo-tion director, said all stores within the mall were closed for a time but that two of the larger department depart-ment stores reopened about 4 p.m. She said there were no serious problems of pilfering, but noted that security was tightened during the blackout. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Darkness Covers Davis County CONTINUED FROM FRONT Both Davis County hospitals continued to operate normally, supplied by auxiliary power that was "kicked on" within a matter of a few minutes. A spokesperson at Davis North Medical Center said the intercom system failed and "runners" were used to transmit emergency messages. IT WAS an unexpected "early out" for thousands of Davis County students as schools were dismissed officially at 2 p.m. However, without bells or intercom inter-com systems, many students left school shortly after lunch. Hot lunches had been prepared in advance at most schools and the power outage did not interfere-with interfere-with the lunch programs. DAVIS COUNTY Courthouse was left in the dark and closed its doors when it was evident that the power outage was widespread. "We quickly pulled the plugs on all the electrical equipment, including ihe computers, and then waited awhile before realizing realiz-ing that we couldn't conduct business and decided to close the doors," said newly elected Com. Glenn Saunders. Davis County's new jail facility was not hooked up to its auxiliary power but Sheriff Brant Johnson said there were no serious problems. "PRISONERS were locked up at the time of the outage and lunch had been prepared so it was just a matter of waiting for the power to come back on," he said. "The only lack of security wc had was that our closed circuit television units were out of service for a short time." Students at Weber Basin Job Corps were placed in the dorms and kept warm by wearing coats and wrapping wrap-ping up in blankets. At Clearfield Job Corps, students stu-dents were held in classes during the outage. HILL AFB officials began letting employees off work about an hour early. Emergency power from auxiliary units were quickly put into operation at the command post, hospital, control tower, and other "essential areas" and there were no serious problems. prob-lems. There was no delay in takeoffs and landings at the northern Utah air base, according to Maj. Larry Greer of the base information office. And how did your day go? |
