Record-high temperatures may have contributed to a water main break in downtown Dallas that knocked out power to Dallas County's administration building nearly three weeks ago.
The building is still operating without full power fully restored and many staffer are working remotely.
Dallas County Records Building power cut off during pre-dawn Aug. 26 when a city water break triggered the central breaker to shut down.
A main on Elm Street broke and filled an Oncor power vault with water in downtown Dallas beside the administration building, causing the county’s 4,000-amp main breaker to trigger a safety shut off and burn out one of three panels.
Engineers have speculated that extreme heat has caused water lines to not contract properly, similar to problems that extreme freezing temperatures can cause, said County Administrator Darryl Martin.
“It could have been ugly, but thank God it happened overnight,” he said. “There wasn't sparks or anything it just shut down, but it did kill it completely. And this is not like the breaker you have in your house. You don't pick up on the shelf anywhere.”
Another water main busted last week on Main Street, which seeped into downtown residence garages.
Vendors said the earliest a new breaker could be available is eight months because data centers use them and have strained the supply, among other reasons.
Power was again fully shut down over the weekend, Sept. 12, while the county Facilities Department installed and tested a used, refurbished breaker panel. It has functioned properly as of Monday afternoon.
“They've done a hell of a job and they actually were the people who located the generators for me because we couldn't find generators anywhere, believe it or not, all the generators were gone,” Martin said.
Staff and employees had been alternating working remotely because the limited generators can power the 7-floor building only at about 50-70 percent.
Data centers use, Martin said, could also be a reason that generators are unavailable to keep the building running at full power.
The first and second floors have remained open throughout the outage because those are departments needed for public business use, like for marriage licenses and property tax payments.
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