Power outage darkens MGM for 6 hours

Jerry Fink and Karen Zekan

Tuesday, May 12, 1998 | 11:30 a.m.

A broken waterline at the MGM Grand hotel-casino caused a power outage Monday that trapped at least 17 people in elevators and left guests in the dark for almost six hours.

The hotel was forced to shut down all power about 12:20 p.m. because of the ruptured two-inch primary water main's dangerously close proximity to the central building's main electrical power source, spokesman Lynn Holt said.

Employees handled the situation as smoothly as possible, with pit bosses shutting down the games, security officers alerting and assisting guests, and additional off-duty security personnel responding to the property within an hour of the shutdown.

Many patrons camped out in front of some of the casino's 3,700 slot machines which had frozen their winnings. Each of the slot machines possesses a battery backup which retains a memory of money and winning totals.

With the elevators out of commission, guests climbed the stairs to access their rooms. Holt said all of the property's 5,005 rooms remained without power during the blackout, although guests were able to get in their rooms because of battery-operated door locks.

The company, however, could not comment on estimated revenue loss.

"Our biggest loss was the loss of the opportunity to serve our guests the way we like to," Holt said. "It's always a loss when our guests do not have a pleasant experience."

Bob Leinbach, spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department, said there are at least 89 elevators at the MGM and operators were calling each of them to determine whether they were occupied.

Leinbach said the operators called some elevators more than once because on some occasions those inside the dark cars were too frightened to answer.

None of the 17 guests trapped in elevators was injured, Leinbach said, adding there were a couple of unrelated minor injuries.

Firefighters used hand cranks to manually raise or lower elevators to the 21st floor, the one common floor at the hotel where all elevators stop, Leinbach said.

The equipment involved in the outage is owned by the hotel, according to Tom Henley, spokesman for Nevada Power Co. which responded to the hotel to assist with repairs before power was restored at 6:10 p.m.

The hotel's Studio Cafe provided guests with free cold meals -- sandwiches, salads, and other foods not requiring power to prepare.