Water Main Break

Around noon yesterday, four trucks with flatbed trailers brought 34 porta-potties into the soak city lot and dropped them there. Which made me think they were going to try to operate without water. But by the time we finally left around 2:30, they were still sitting there.

Before we left, we took a stroll from the campground over to the resort entrance and it was quite eerie to see the park completely silent and deserted on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

firemedic2572 said:
Without cedar fair Sandusky has nothing..

...nothing except one of the largest coal ports on the Great Lakes... prime access to Great Lakes shipping... foundries, automotive parts, food processing equipment and paint manufacturers... plenty of stores and businesses catering to locals.... numerous private marinas...

MDOmnis said:
Pointguru - are you serious? ... but are you really suggesting they could operate an amusement park for the whole day without water?

I thought my post was self explanatory. Yes, many large businesses continue to operate without water every day. Port-a-pots resolve the majority of your issues. Fire is practically a non-issue except for the hotels. Yes, if the park had any sort of disaster recovery plan it could have restored water pressure by pumping lake water; but, that is just hindsight now.

Keeping the park open would have been a pain for staff and would have required a lot of extra work; but it could have been done. I have read elsewhere that the park is insured for losses if the park has to close for situations like this. It is entirely possible that the park will end up making more money by closing the park and collecting an insurance payment than they would have if they tried to remain open and refund hotels, rent port-a-pots, provide clean drinking water, pay workers for extra labor, etc...

Pete said:

In Cleveland we have water main breaks all the time because of ageing infrastructure that is not replaced. But very few customers are without water when that happens because of redundancy built into the system.

You're right. There really should have been some redundancy in the system. Not having the redundancy shows
complacency on someone's part. It is my perception that very often politicians (and often large companies) will ignore obvious flaws in some system until the crap hits the fan. Based on the way the announcement was worded, it sounds like the water main is the responsibility of the city of Sandusky. So, it is very likely that the politicians ignored the problem until the crap hit the fan, like happened yesterday.

Cedar Point does have a PA system, but don't make it available to the public. I heard the announcement that the park was closed while walking past the lagoon opposite Iron Dragon, about 11:00 or so. The announcement was more or less exactly what the notice on the web site said.

There is no way the park could have operated without water. There is far more fire suppression issues than just the hotels. Every theater, restaurant, quick service station, all needs to have fire suppression. There are also many roller coasters in the park that have wood structures, and the wood structure (at least Mean Streak) have caught fire in the past. While it is unlikely that no one here would complain of the loss of Mean Streak, but an uncontrolled fire of the structure would be a very very bad thing for the park and surrounding area, and I suspect that it would spread to the surrounding area.

As far as restrooms go, they could potentially supplement them with porta-johns, but I don't see how you could get enough for well over 30,000 people in a couple of hours, like they would need to. Plus, there is also the issue of feeding people, where none of the food stands can operate without water.

Park will reopen tomorrow and they are offering a special deal.

https://www.cedarpoint.com/what-s-new/park-update

0g said:
Pete said:

There is far more fire suppression issues than just the hotels. Every theater, restaurant, quick service station, all needs to have fire suppression.

They close rides, they could certainly close an indoor theater or cancel a show. Fire suppression systems in restaurants don't use water. You don't put out a grease fire with water.

Plus, there is also the issue of feeding people, where none of the food stands can operate without water.

Other restaurants around the country routinely remain open without water.

I doubt that Cedar Point is going to collect more money from insurance (if they're even ensured against such a freak occurrence) by closing the park than if they were open. Sounds like a conspiracy theory that some disgruntled guest made up. And if by some scenario that is true - good for them. They've probably been paying millions in premiums and getting nothing in return for years and years.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on the ability to operate the park without water. I think the crap storm of bad publicity that would have erupted had they tried to do that would have been 10x worse than what they are enduring now.

"Port-a-pots resolve the majority of your issues."

Because all the companies that rent Port-a-Pots in Ohio have the hundreds of extra Port-a-Pots just sitting around, ready to taken off to Cedar Point. And how do Port-a-Pots 'resolve' guests not being able to wash their hands, employees not being able to prepare food....?

"Fire is practically a non-issue except for the hotels."

You do realize there were people in those hotels, right? You do know there are laws about customers in public accommodations pertaining to their safety, right? You do realize housing guests in a fire hazard is kinda not okay, right?

..."it could have restored water pressure by pumping lake water..."

And pumping lake water would help how? Restored water pressure is of little use if there's no potable water in the system.

"Keeping the park open would have been a pain for staff and would have required a lot of extra work; but it could have been done."

Sure. With no functioning toilets, no water to drink, no water to prepare food with, no water to clean with, no water to put out fires with, they could have kept the park open if they'd just tried a little harder.

I wouldn't enjoy being in a park where I could not ride rides or buy food, all the while smelling the fragrant odor of hundreds of unflushed toilets filled with feces and urine. Perhaps you have a different idea of a good time than I do.

It would've been much worse if they remained open. There would be lawsuits from people getting sick and dehydrated.

Other restaurants around the country routinely remain open without water.

Where are you eating that doesn't have running water? Insane!

And WHY are you eating at a restaurant that doesn't have running water? Gordon Ramsey would go apesh*t at a restaurant that did that.

Ok, so ABC 6(Columbus) said that Cedar Point won't be open until either Monday or Tuesday, Is that what the park is saying, or am I mishearing things? I haven't read any posts today so don't hate me if I just asked a really stupid question.

noggin said:
"Port-a-pots resolve the majority of your issues."

"Fire is practically a non-issue except for the hotels."

You do realize there were people in those hotels, right? You do know there are laws about customers in public accommodations pertaining to their safety, right? You do realize housing guests in a fire hazard is kinda not okay, right?

..."it could have restored water pressure by pumping lake water..."

"Keeping the park open would have been a pain for staff and would have required a lot of extra work; but it could have been done."

Perhaps you have a different idea of a good time than I do.

Perhaps people should read previous post before they make fools of themselves or try to imply the opposite of what I previously stated.

I did read your "previous post", where do you think I got those quotes from [insert smiley face here]? Or did you mean "previous posts"?

ThePointGuru said:
As for the park itself, it is primarily an open outdoor venue.

Except for all the buildings.

If fire was the main concern, they could have closed the indoor attractions such as entertainment and sit down restaurants.

And security offices, and first aid, and food preparation facilities, and shops, and roller coaster stations (Cedar Creek Mine Ride, for example), and guest services, and games....

Bathrooms could have still functioned (albeit with reduced water pressure) or the park could have rented port-a-pots on a very short notice.

Still amused that you think the park could have on "a very short notice" rented enough Port-a-Pots to accommodate 30,000 people.

Hotels are a harder question and probably should have been closed.

Well! You got me there. The hotels "probably" should have been closed. Golly, I totally mis-judged where you were coming from.

The park is on a peninsula and is almost entirely surrounded by water for crying out loud. How can you run out of water? Especially, since water doesn't have to be drinkable to be used for putting out fires or flushing toilets.

The question isn't how can you run out of water... it's how can you run out of water that's safe to use. Here's a way: by having the water main that brings that water to the resort rupture.

Assuming that Cedar Point, for some reason, had built the necessary infrastructure to bring Lake Erie water directly into their system (a pointless and considerable expense), fire hoses and toilets and sinks and drinking fountains all draw from the same system. Do you really think it's a good idea to have a guest drink unfiltered Lake Erie water out of a drinking fountain?

buckeyesbrownsindianscavs said:
Ok, so ABC 6(Columbus) said that Cedar Point won't be open until either Monday or Tuesday, Is that what the park is saying, or am I mishearing things? I haven't read any posts today so don't hate me if I just asked a really stupid question.

The park has stated that they will reopen Monday.

Can you imagine if they decided to stay open and people got food born illnesses from tainted food? Talk about a lawyers dream come true!

100% agree. I feel they shouldn't of let anybody in, providing the break happened prior to 8am. After the first 100 complaints of toilets(outside of gate) not flushing properly, or at all, and sinks having no pressure, that'd be a good clue something was amiss!

noggin said:

Still amused that you think the park could have on "a very short notice" rented enough Port-a-Pots to accommodate 30,000 people.

Apparently he's not the only one you should be "amused" at ... Because from the sounds of things, CP themselves thought this could remedy the situation.

On a tangent of what Sandusky has besides Cedar Point...

...it's apparently the only city in the world that has Freemason symbols in its street layout.

http://bradmeltzer.com/book/the-book-of-fate/sandusky-ohio/