Downtown Chicago Area Snarled by Power Outage

A power outage hit Chicago’s Near North Side early today, knocking radio and television stations off the air, interrupting rush-hour train service and forcing two hospitals to switch to backup power generators.

Large office buildings, including IBM Plaza and the Chicago Sun-Times, were left without power, and IBM officials closed their offices. The huge clock on one of Chicago’s most recognizable structures, the Wrigley Building, was stopped at 5:35 a.m.

In the John Hancock Center, one worker climbed 50 flights of stairs to get to work.

“I was able to take an elevator up to the 44th floor, and from there, I had to walk up to the 94th,” said Dan Fields, who works for Lee Communications, a company that provides traffic information to media outlets.

The outage area, about nine square miles, was concentrated north of the Chicago River, stretching from a point just north of the downtown business district into several North Shore communities and out to the city’s west and northwest sides. Not all customers in the area lost power, said Commonwealth Edison spokesman Carter Brydon.

The outage was triggered by arcing at an Edison substation brought on by fog and dampness, Brydon said.

As many as 100,000 customers could have been affected at varying times, Brydon estimated. Emergency crews restored electricity to about half the customers by this afternoon.

The outages interrupted commuter train service for about 20 minutes.

“We still had power on the rails, but the signals went out,” Chicago Transportation Authority Assistant Supt. Joe Daquilante said. “When the signals go out, you better stop the trains.”

Two major medical facilities, Columbus Hospital and Children’s Memorial Hospital, were forced to use emergency power generators.

Ten radio stations went off the air for about 20 minutes, and one television station also experienced service interruptions.