Power Outages

Last Sunday Morning, July 25, 900 Marshy Cove experienced a partial power failure. A Delmarva Power lineman told me that we lost a phase. For the non-technical-electrical, that means of the three power legs that connect to the building, one failed. It was not a problem within our building, but, on the street side.

Many of us had air conditioning, but no lights in half of the condo. Others had the opposite.
Things were back to near normal by late morning.

Again on Wednesday, there was a total power failure.

Lessons Learned:

1. Have a flashlight nearby. Although the emergency lighting in the hallway and stairs should work, they were not operational. Because the power failure was partial, the emergency circuits that detect power failure thought that things were OK even though, the lights were out in the stairway. Of course, in some cases, the batteries may have been worn-out.
2. Have you checked you fire exit key? Does it work? You don't need your key to exit the building; but, you need it to return. If the elevators are out of service, climbing the stairs is the only way back. Many folks, this week, were surprised that their keys didn't work. Sometimes a little wiggling will do it. I had several keys cut at a local hardware store only to find that none of them worked on the door. I went to a different hardware store and their machine did a better job. If you get keys cut, test your key before copying and test all new keys.
3. Our system needs some serious attention. We residents are at risk. The Board has a plan to replace the emergency lighting. The sooner the better. We also need to figure out the exit key problem. Either new locks or distribute keys are sure to work.

Send your comments to MC900@comcast.net

One readers comments:

"Sunday morning we were told things would be back up in a couple of hours so we went out to church and to lunch. When we came back, the elevators weren't actvated yet, so we (owners and weekend guests) climbed the stairs in the dark, only to find we couldn't get in the locked stairwell doors. In essence we were locked out of the condo, and my calls to Mr T at Commanco and Mr. S at Beazer (just fishing for an idea of how to get back in) were not returned. I was disappointed."