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Power restored at Meadows Racetrack & Casino
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Power at the Meadows Racetrack & Casino in Washington County was restored early Saturday morning after an outage prompted the evacuation of guests and non-essential workers Friday night. A downed 2,500-volt wire that fell near the location of the facility triggered a surge at 6:10 p.m. and a power outage, said Sean Sullivan, vice president and general manager of the casino.
A motorist ran into a pole on a road near the racetrack and damaged the pole's transmission circuit, prompting a fuse to blow at the racetrack, sad Chuck Jackson, a spokesperson for West Penn Power.
Power was restored to 80 percent of the facility within minutes of the outage through the casino's backup generators, but a critical component -- the surveillance system -- was severely damaged, "which meant we could not see any of the gaming activities or behaviors on the casino floor, and according to Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board regulations we could not operate the casino," Mr. Sullivan said.
The casino was re-opened at 3:20 a.m. after hours of investigation and repair of the systems -- and people were patiently waiting to start gambling again.
"We are in guest service mode," said Mr. Sullivan, "in the process of reaching out to people who were there making sure they didn't lose any credits or value when they were asked to leave the property."
And indeed, when The Meadows reopened in the wee hours of the morning, people were waiting outside to go in and start gambling, he noted.
First Published August 25, 2012 6:01 pm
