Last week’s unusually intense winter rainstorm, whose winds were at one time clocked at 60 knots on the Hill, was responsible for a blackout at the Advanced Light Source and massive debris movement all over the site. But no major equipment losses were reported, and structural damage was minimal, according to Operations Maintenance Manager Don Weber.

“We’ve had power outages (at the ALS) before, but this was the roughest one I’ve seen in 10 years,” Weber said of the Wednesday night-Thursday morning storm. Lightning strikes in the area caused electrical surges earlier in the evening, and then around 10:30, a bolt knocked out power to about 80 buildings, including the 24-hour light source.

Weber’s team worked throughout the night, manually resetting equipment and systems, replacing fuses, and restarting machines, engines, cooling towers and chilling units. About 11 hours later, things were back to relative normal at the Lab’s premier user facility.

Storm drains at several places on site clogged up with wood, debris and mud, overflowing their basins and creating a cascade of runoff water to lower elevations. Only one section of roadway required a barricade, above Building 71. A tree was blown over at the 44B trailer next to Building 25, but nothing was damaged. Trees also fell on the hillside below Building 88.

The major task for Facilities Thursday and Friday was clean-up and mud removal. If it looked by week’s end like nothing had happened, thank Weber’s dedicated staff of custodians, gardeners, electricians, and plant maintenance technicians.
“They all did an exceptional job,” he said.