Park-wide Power Outage on July 08, 2018

[sereniv]

was anyone at the park yesterday (sunday) while the power went out for a brief minute? I was at customer relations with bf at the time and he had to be given a special pass to get in since we were in the process of adjusting the payment for his membership when the power cut. while we were walking through the park, we heard people talking about how some of the rides had to be evacuated as all of them throughout the park were shut off. the only ride I know of that was down for longer than an hour was BfE, which we went to around 7:30 (power outage was around 5) and it was still off.

 

[luseendesi]

I didn't think it was really a power outage, I was in the bathroom and the lights were off a little less than 20 seconds, i just assumed someone accidentally leaned on the switch. We were in the France area when it happened.

 

[CastleOSullivan]

I might have been in Rhinefeld when this happened. I heard the music turn off briefly around the Wilkommenhaus, but I could still hear it on the pathway to Oktoberfest. I wouldn't have known that there was a power outage.

 

[Eric]

I was waiting in line for light balance near the railroad crossing at France when this happened. All the music turned off, Griffon had stopped and the railroad train stopped.The music and lights came on again about 30 seconds later. About 20 minutes later, both Griffon and the railroad train started up again.

 

[Nicole]

It made the local news.

Based on some reports I have heard, I think the park may be understating the affect in New France.

 

[Thomas]

Invadr went down for a very long time. I was waiting in line when everything went down.

 

[DJTLG]

I was at the park in line for Verbolten in the outdoor part of the line, beside the final brake run. The fans, lights, and music in the line and the station went off for about 30 seconds. Emergency battery-powered lights (like you'd find in most buildings) came on. people who were sitting in the trains in the station were made to get off and go back into the corrals. Ride ops yelled to those in the trains on the brake run that maintenance staff was on the way to get them off. Within a couple minutes, someone came with a tool to unlock each seat, and riders were escorted back into the station. We got out of the since they were saying they were not sure how long the ride would be shut down.

The power was back on, but no rides in Germany or Italy were running. Some of my group was near Der Wirblewind. They said that ride was running but made a loud noise and jerked when the power went out. A backup system then kicked in to lower riders back down to the ground. Within 30-45 minutes, we noticed that most rides were running again.

There was helicopter crash near the William & Mary campus. I heard someone say that cause the outage, but I'm not sure whether or not that is true. https://pilotonline.com/news/local/article_5f9c467e-82f5-11e8-92a2-535ea5d5e8f9.html

What is the procedure for roller coasters after power outages? Would riders on a lift hill or mid-course brake run be walked off? How long does it take for the ride control systems to reboot? Do they have to run empty trains through for testing before riders can board?

 

[Evan]

What is the procedure for roller coasters after power outages? Would riders on a lift hill or mid-course brake run be walked off? How long does it take for the ride control systems to reboot? Do they have to run empty trains through for testing before riders can board?

Riders are evacuated from wherever the train(s) stopped. Once power is restored, the process to bring them back online depends on the ride. This situation is no different than powering the ride up in the morning. Which like said above, is ride dependant... some may take 30 seconds. Some may take 5 minutes. If all trains were already stopped when the outage occurred, the process may be a bit more simple. In most instances of a power outage, maintenance is run around to a lot of rides. So it's a matter of how many rides are down and how many maintenance man are on duty to run to be able to get to the rides.

When power is cut to the ride instantly, this may cause it to fault, blow fuses, create ghost trains, etc. So it's hard to say sometimes the exact process to reopen. But due to this, test runs and potentially a block check may need to be done based on company policies in order to reopen to the guests to ensure all safety systems are working like they should.