Data Center Contest: The great Chicago flood of ‘91

We’re gathering stories and photos for a cool contest sponsored by American Power Conversion (APC). First place in our Data Center Contest wins a Nintendo Wii game system. And we’re giving away twenty (20) copies of System Specifications and Project Manual for Data Centers (a $250 value!) to members just for entering the contest with a valid entry. Enjoy the contest entry below — and feel free to comment.

Community Manager

Mark submitted this entry:

The year was 1991 and I was working for a Chicago company located downtown as an analyst. The company resided in a 32-story building. This was the year the subway tunnels experienced a crack, allowing water to enter throughout the lower regions of all the office buildings downtown.

The building in which I worked had all of its power supplies in the basement, which stopped working, thus the air ventilation stopped working as well. This meant immediate evacuation of the building since the windows were all sealed closed, so people wouldn’t accidentally fall from the windows.

So after gathering as much paperwork and stuff as possible, not knowing how long we would be out, we proceeded to the doors to leave and the doors were locked because the electric was off and they are electric-powered locks. People are starting to panic thinking the air is going to run out soon, crazy talk, but within minutes a fireman comes with an axe to break the newly installed security doors.

So we proceed to walk down 30 flights of stairs with boxes of paperwork in hand until we reach bottom. Several were stopped by our empty-handed supervisor, who asked if we would go back to retrieve his briefcase and etc from his office. We replied with “lots of luck” and headed for the local bar, only to see on TV, our supervisor being carried out on a stretcher from trying to retrieve his stuff.