Beau goes dark for 25 minutes

Balloons in power line blamed

BILOXI – It wasn’t cupid’s arrow that put out the lights on Valentine’s Day, but it might as well have been.

A bouquet of balloons floated free around 9:40 p.m. near the intersection of Division and Cuevas streets and got tangled in a primary power line, temporarily cutting off power to Biloxi casinos. It was just a glitch, except at the Beau Rivage.

The casino resort’s uninterrupted power source system malfunctioned, putting the 32-story building in the dark for about 25 minutes.

Some people dined by candlelight. Others got stuck in elevators.

Roger Gros, the editor of Global Gaming Business magazine, was among those trapped.

“I was out all day, and I had picked up some take-out food on my way back to the hotel,” Gros said. “I got back and in the elevator. There had been one woman on there with me. She got off on the floor before mine and then – boom! – everything went dark.”

For about 15 minutes, he wondered what was going on. Gros shouted back and forth with people stuck on the two other elevators in the shaft.

“I didn’t smell any smoke,” he said. “There didn’t seem to be any panic. It certainly wasn’t pleasant. I think that most people took it in stride.”

Finally, a message came over the elevator intercom, informing him about the power outage. He pried the doors open slightly, saw the elevator was stuck between floors and was able to get a glimmer of ambient light.

“I sat down and ate my dinner in the darkness,” he said. “I had fried chicken. It was lovely. If I had had a candle, it would have been very romantic.”

After 30 and 40 minutes in the stuck elevator, Gross said he was able to get out.

Biloxi firefighters and police were at the scene monitoring the elevators and assisting with crowd control.

“We didn’t have any real panic,” said Mary Cracchiolo, a spokeswoman for Beau Rivage. “No major problems were reported. The Mississippi Gaming Commission had us evacuate the barge. Folks were moved over to the buffet area and the atrium. There was minimal light and flashlights.”

Neither the Beau Rivage nor the Biloxi Fire Department could say how many people were trapped in elevators.

Rich Randall with the Mississippi Gaming Commission said the power outage at the other casinos ranged from a few seconds to a minute, so no evacuations were necessary at other casinos.

A crew from Mississippi Power discovered balloons stamped with Valentine decorations tangled in an electrical line several blocks from the casinos, said Cindy Duvall, a spokeswoman for the utility company.

Biloxi Deputy Fire Chief Kirk Noffsinger said the Beau Rivage is equipped with extensive backup systems so he was surprised to learn of the malfunction.

Engineers with Mississippi Power are working with Beau Rivage to correct problems in the casino’s backup power system to prevent any future problems.

The department responded with six units and 16 firefighters, including the battalion chief, who were there to rescue anyone from an elevator in the event of a medical emergency. The fire department had no reports of injuries related to the power interruption or evacuation.

“I think this is one of those real weird situations that usually doesn’t happen,” said Noffsinger.

Source: TOM WILEMON Sun Herald

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