Clarence Davis stood at Randolph and State Streets, his arms crossed for warmth, his brow defiantly furrowed.
He had been there two hours, since the power at his coffee shop flickered out, leaving the store clerk without a job for the afternoon–and without transportation.
He had tried to board the Red Line to head home but was halted at the gate by a CTA employee who told him the trains were down.
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He had thought about calling a friend for a ride, but police had cordoned off most Loop streets.
“I’m mad. I’m very upset,” Davis said after recounting his dwindling options. “I’m stuck. I’m stranded.”
He was not alone.
The power outage that struck downtown Chicago about 12:30 p.m. Sunday closed businesses and stores, snarled traffic, halted public transportation and trapped more than 50 people in elevators.
It could have been far worse. Because the outage hit on a Sunday, most downtown buildings were sparsely inhabited.
Still, the impact was evident.
Along Michigan Avenue and throughout the Loop, wayward shoppers mingled with displaced workers, filling sidewalks as they searched for open restaurants and stores.
In skyscrapers, security crews broke out flashlights and led workers down darkened stairwells. At the 1,544-room Chicago Hilton & Towers, hotel employees handed out thousands of neon glow sticks originally purchased for Y2K.
“This is not the first time we’ve been a victim of this scenario,” said Robert Allegrini, a hotel spokesman who remembers a similar power outage in August 1999. “We prepared for this because of what happened last summer.”
Others were just learning.
Patricia Sobier, 52, of Downers Grove got aboard the elevator at The Disney Store on Michigan Avenue just seconds before the power went out.
She pushed the button for the lower level, intent on using the restroom.
She would not get there for another hour and 45 minutes, the outage stranding her in the elevator. Chicago Fire Department officials say they responded to 52 calls of people stuck in elevators.
“I learned a valuable lesson,” Sobier said. “If you need to go to the bathroom, don’t get on an elevator.”
At the First National Plaza building on South Clark Street, security officers evacuated about a dozen people who were working Sunday afternoon, thousands fewer than fill the building on a weekday.
“We got real lucky,” said Mike Burke, the building’s engineer.
Across the street at the Bank One Building, Susan Bart’s computer went dark shortly before the structure’s backup generator clicked on. When a security officer reached her office, 51 floors up, he told her not to use the elevators, which he warned could stop at any time if the generators faltered.
She huddled with co-workers to talk about their options. Fifty-one flights, they decided, were simply too many.
“We decided, finally, to take the elevator down,” Bart said after arriving safely in the building’s lobby. “I’m glad we made it.”
Outside there were problems as well.
Chicago police closed all Loop streets from Congress to Wacker and from Wacker to Michigan in an attempt to prevent people from going downtown. Some exits off the Dan Ryan Expressway and Lake Shore Drive were also closed, confusing some drivers. Most traffic lights were out.
At O’Hare International Airport, incoming passengers were stacked up at the Blue Line station when the system shut down.
On the North Side, DePaul University freshman Julia Conrad was heading downtown on the Red Line when the power went out. Everyone was ordered off at Chicago Avenue, and the 17-year-old held hands with some friends as they felt their way out of the station.
“It was pitch dark,” Conrad said. “It was actually scary.”
Those turned away from the trains crowded bus stops, searching desperately for a way home. Many buses were packed with passengers. Others seemed not to come at all.
“I’ve been here an hour,” said George Davies as he waited on State Street for a bus. “I don’t know why.”
At Union Station, Amtrak service was slowed and Metra trains were delayed when electrical switches were knocked out.
Stranded traveler Glenn Hietikko, a painter from Howell, Mich., sat in a Union Station bar, smoking a cigarette and waiting.
“I’m more frustrated than anything else,” he said. “It’s amazing to hear about what’s going on.”
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Out of about 30,000 hotel rooms in the Magnificent Mile area, 5,000 to 8,000 were without power, said Russell Salzman, president of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. Many guests were forced to carry their luggage down stairwells to check out.
About 30 percent of the stores on Michigan Avenue were blacked out, Salzman said. Some merchants posted hastily scribbled signs in their windows explaining why they were closed for the afternoon.
Other stores had power throughout the day, leaving shoppers confused.
“Actually, it saved money for me,” said Holly Miller, 26, who was vacationing from Troy, Mich. “I definitely would have bought many more things if the stores had been open.”
At Wabash Food & Liquor, 234 S. Wabash Ave., store clerk Ottis Jernagin manned the door, a key in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Because the store had no power, Jernagin was only allowing regular customers inside.
“We’re basically closed,” he said, then unlocked the door for a man he knew.
Around the corner at 31 E. Adams St., there were more pressing matters. Richard Wilkins, a cashier at Baskin Robbins/Dunkin’ Donuts, was beginning to worry about his goods.
“In another three or four hours, it’s going to melt,” he said, standing behind the thawing ice cream counter. “This is how I make my living.”
Of course, not all of the concerns were business.
At The Drake hotel, the power outage put a serious damper on Robert Fasan’s wedding reception, planned for 400 guests.
With just four hours before the reception was scheduled to begin and the lights still out, the tuxedoed Fasan sat in the hotel lobby, stoically pondering the possibility the hotel would have to substitute cold cuts for a hot meal.
“I’m calm by nature,” he said. “Someone has to stay calm; it might as well be the groom.”
There was at least a happy ending. At 5 p.m., the hotel’s general manager, Jean Marie Grouard, said power had been restored and the hotel would be able to serve Fasan’s wedding party a full-course meal.
Albeit a little late.