Passengers trapped in lifts as power goes out

| 04/04/2011

(CNS): A number of people were trapped in elevators on Monday as a result of the power outages affecting Grand Cayman. Although a CUC spokesperson said the power firm had been calling businesses to inform them of the need to cut power in the capital, it appears people who were unaware were still caught out. People were also reportedly caught in the lift at the brand new government accommodation building on Elgin Avenue. Although not all of the civil servants have moved across to the state-of-the-art five storey building yet, several departments have already moved in. It is not clear if the back-up generators for the new government office failed or if these have not been turned on as the building is not yet full.

CUC is warning that rotating blackouts could affect all districts ofGrand Cayman until next month as a result of a combination of explosions at the plant earlier this year and major mechanical failures which put three major generators out of action, as well as new generator problems experienced this weekend.
 

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  1. Cybill Savant says:

    Our new building is “open plan’ big time. I can imagine some of these statutory authorities who have been buried away for years in fancy offices with ZERO oversight are pretty pissed at having to sit and be seen and heard in this new building! I am especially looking out for the monumentally paid CEO of one of them who has been going to work at his own hours and in jeans or shorts and teeshirt and how he will cope.

  2. Freedom Man says:

    People were stuck at the Strand also! If we can’t expect CUC’s generators to work consistantly how can we expect all other backup systems work all the time.

  3. anonymous says:

    FA cup football game @ annex on Sunday night between Bodden Town FC and George Town Sports club re-scheduled because of CUC’s careless approach,mangement of CUC could have warned the Cayman Islands Football Association about outage instead of wasting peoples time.I bet if another power company was about to set up in Cayman CUC would be more respectful and would warn people about power outages,it’s time for another power co. in Cayman!

  4. Marek says:

    All major buildings have generators, does not make sense that the elevators wouldn’t be on the back up system. What’s a generator for?

     

    • Dr. Hannibal Lecter says:

      It does not say that. Stop jumping to conclusions. Some idiot probably messed with the breaker.

  5. Anonymous says:

    CUC need to get their acts together and COMMUNICATE when power is going to be cut so lifts (elevators) can be cleared of people and turned off.

    The way CUC have been cutting power without warning could lead to someone getting hurt, or even killed. Imagine if someone in that elevator had suffered an asthma attack, or even a heart attack, and had been stuck, unable to get out, or get help. Worth thinking about CUC……

    • Subway Cookie says:

      I honestly don’t think that CUC’s “scheduled” blackouts are so scheduled that they can pinpoint the exact time they will happen and how long they will last. We know now they will happen but this building, with all its acclaim and song and dance, is clearly not up to code yet which begs the questions “why are people allowed in?” Even if people knew the electricity would go off at 10:57am, someone somewhere will undoubtedly be at risk of getting hurt. God forbid someone gets trapped and ill or hurt but realistically its the building that should be able to accommodate these circumstances. Our building has n outage yesterday and within seconds the generator kicked in and our building is OLD, there is no excuse for this new building to be any less efficient.

    • chuckie surfmeister says:

      If CUC can no longer supply the Islands power supply then perhaps they should have their monopoly withdrawn and another supplier should be allowed to compete for their business.
      Competition could only be a good thing for the Island and would drive down prices for the consumer…it’s not like CUC has never made enough money to invest in infrastructure, the problem is that the fat cats are creaming off the proffits and not re-investing in the business….this is just another step towards us becoming a third world country with all that that implies to foreign investment in the islands…. do you think Dr Shetty is going to continue to plan his new hospital if the power supply is not going to be guaranteed?
      Come on CUC pull your finger out and stop feeding us a pack of mistruths

  6. Goober says:

    The governmental staff probably got about the same amount of work done in a dark, stationary elevator as they would have otherwise.

    Lunch break soon come.

    • Anonymous says:

      Have you tried getting into the new building! Security everywhere. It is designed to make the Civil Service a faceless, anonimous entity only contactable by email or voicemail. Unless of course you are delivering lunch!

  7. Anonymous says:

    I have been told that  eople were stuck in toilets and lifts in the super new Government Building.

    No emergency lights came on (like they should) so unless they had a torch to move around the  pitch black  corridors they were stuck. Also with no power , peoples swipe cards did not work to open doors , meaning for some there was no way out. This is scary, if the source of the problem had been a fire in the building, many people could have perished.

     

     

    • Anonymous says:

      I’m pretty sure those caught in toilets had their cell phones on to guide them out the door…

    • Frank says:

      Whens the last time you used your swipe card to get out of the bathroom? I wanna meet the generous that thought that was a good idea!

    • anon says:

      Ok, I know I will get a lot of thumbs down for this one but, the fact that the emergency lights didn’t come on nor the back up generator is not the fault of CUC, that would be the building management, or Health & Safety department (if we haveone on Island) for not checking that these work in situations like that. The last time we had a power cut in the building I work in (last year sometime) it was noted that there were no lights in the elevators nor was there sufficient light in the stairwell. Within a few days the Building Management hadrectified this.

      Once again, the fact that the swipe cards didn’t work when the power was out is once again the fault of the company and building management who should have contingency plans for such things, not CUC. Why would someone need to swipe to get out of a building in the 1st place? In, yes, out, why?

  8. Anonymous says:

    Stairs are healthier and far more reliable.

    • Swine says:

      Hellooooo….we are talking about the civil service here….what are stairs?