Power Outage June 28

Power out in the back half of the park. Allegedly from two corvettes racing on the Chaussee and crashed into power lines.

Gates at the railroad crossing were stuck down so we had to cross the tracks next to the booth. Pretty interesting.

It seems odd that such a top park as Cedar Point is that they still depend on power lines on poles.

Everyone depends on elevated power lines. I work at a critical infrastructure facility that has 3 main feeds off the transmission grid and each of those 3 feeds are elevated.

Just this morning a squirrel decided to climb into a transformer at a main substation just East of Toledo and caused a power outage for over 10,000 customers. I don’t have an overhead power line within a mile of my house yet I lost power as did a hospital with underground feeders.

Same. We have underground lines and our power rarely goes out when others' do, but if poles get damaged/destroyed in the right place we are out of luck. Underground lines are still connected to elevated lines.

Yeah, I mean all main water lines are buried so there’s no way Cedar point would ever have to shut down due to the lack of a fresh water supply.

I was checking what the wait times were like in the park and noticed that EVERY ride was listed as closed, despite a 10PM closing time. Power outage must be why.

Interesting being at the park while this is going down. We were next to board Millennium Force (which was only running one train). They were a few seconds from dispatching when the power went down. I was really surprised to see that the only way to evacuate the train was by connecting a battery pack car by car. It took them awhile to get everyone out. What if there was a fire or true emergency? Shocked that don’t have a Generac that allows them to unlock everyone at once.

Each time I had be to e-vac’d from a ride (only twice) park employees had to connect a computer looking device to the train to unlock the restraints. That isn’t an electrical power issue but is an issue with communicating with the safety systems on the train to unlock the restraints. Most major rides at CP do have stand-by generators including MF. You can see most of these hiding in plain sight around the ride stations.

OK, so I meant why does Cedar Point still rely on power lines on wood poles that can be hit by a storm or idiots racing and shut down the entire park? Steel poles would be a good investment.

I believe the device that they connect to the train is essentially a fancy battery. The hydraulic restraints require a power source to allow the restraints to open. If they have to unload passengers outside of the station, there isn't any source of power to activate the restraint, so they use the portable battery pack. This has happened to me twice on Maverick. Once in the holding brakes at the end of the ride, and once in the holding brake right before the lift hill.

Millennium Force requires an emergency generator, especially since there is no easy way to evacuate people from the ride without power. Millennium Force doesn't have any stairs to evacuate the train, only the cable car. I would also suspect that the generator is big enough to get the train over the top of the hill, but maybe not at full speed.

This power outage also makes me wonder, what happens to the blocking system in the computers in the event of a power outage? Does the PLC have a backup power source for the memory, or is the entire system reset?

Everything fail safes to stop mode in case of a power outage. If Raptor was in the vertical loop, for example, it stops in the midcourse, even if only one train is running and all blocks are clear.

When the power comes back on I'm sure it's a tedious process of manual overrides in maintenance mode to get the trains back to where they need to be an accounted for in the blocking system.

Wonder if Cedar Point can seek damages against the two yahoos for loss of income....

Jordan_Vanichek:

Power out in the back half of the park. Allegedly from two corvettes racing on the Chaussee and crashed into power lines.

Gates at the railroad crossing were stuck down so we had to cross the tracks next to the booth. Pretty interesting.

When I left around 9:30, there were 2 utility trucks working on the narrow strip of the Chaussee just off Cleveland Road. If there had been a wreck, it had been cleared by then.

I thought the same as I was crossing the tracks. It wasn't the night I hoped for, but it was a new experience that I'll remember.

It's hard to believe that after 12 years in Florida, I've lost power once, last year, for two or three hours during a hurricane. In the Cleveland area, it happened several times a year.

^posh, that's nothing. You should try living in Metro Detroit. We have DTE. We are practically a 3rd world country. We lose power for days when a squirrel farts!

To a certain extent, Detroit essentially went thru a hurricane that lasted 50 years. But unlike places where hurricanes are common and over a couple of days, the feds didn't come in to rebuild/repair. House where I grew up on west side of Cleveland was carved out of woods along with other houses in the neighborhood. Power lines were above ground in the backyards in those same woods. Takes a lot of wind to knock down power lines but just one decent sized tree branch. Our power was out all the time when I was a kid.

I live in a development now built 25 years or so ago on south side of Cleveland also carved out of woods. But most of the trees were removed and power lines are underground. Definitely true that at some points in the distribution system, lines are above ground. But other than the blackout of 2023 (lost power for a day or two and water for 2-3 days) (knock on wood), we haven't lost power other than a handful of times for a few minutes at a time (every once and a while it will be long enough for clocks on certain appliances to reset but often its not). We had flashlights and candles stashed about the house when I was a kid but never needed that in current house. Power outages were something of an adventure when I was a kid. Weren't as dependent on electricity back then though for pretty much everything.

Friends on the east side of Cleveland still lose power somewhat regularly. Many of those are 80+ year old houses though with above ground power lines and large, mature trees everywhere.

GoBucks89:

Takes a lot of wind to knock down power lines but just one decent sized tree branch.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

What drives me nuts is that people plant trees close to where the power lines already are. I guess they assume that the trees won't grow?

Same people who plant trees 5 feet from their house only to surprised in 10-15 years its growing into their house. It looked fine when it was planted. They just don't stay that size for long. Had a neighbor ask a landscaper how talk a tree the landscaper wanted to plant would grow. Answer was 40 feet and it would grow a foot a year. Neighbor asked him how long it would take to get to 40 ft. It was 6 ft when planted, carry the 11, I think you can figure it out. LOL

Utility companies in northeast Ohio (FirstEnergy) are much more aggressive than they had been in terms of pruning trees near power lines. They have easements to protect and you often see entire streets with the L-shaped hack jobs of trees near power lines. Better than a repeat of 2003.

Ya gotta keep 'em compensated!

I heard that all guests received a ticket for another day.

Is that true and how long are those tickets good for?

We were there and didn't get anything at all.