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Power restored fully to inner-Canyon<br>

Crews from the Arizona Public Service at work restoring power to the inner-Canyon. The repairs turned into more than what crewmembers initially anticipated due to the rough terrain in the Horn Creek area.

APS crews repaired the line and Keil closed the power switch at the top of the Rim near the Orphan mine. A cell phone call confirmed that power had been restored to Phantom Ranch.

Upon Chavez’ return to Indian Garden, he discovered there was no power. Keil became immediately concerned, returned to the Rim about 9 p.m. and checked the voltage on all three phases of the power line. Because of the presence of voltage, Keil knew at that point that a hot wire was exposed within the Canyon.

Keil and Chavez were flown over the line. They discovered a 3,800-foot span of wire broken over the Horn Creek drainage. Due to the remote location, a helicopter landed one crew on top of the Red Wall cliff. The other crew had to hike one mile from the helicopter landing spot to the lower site at the Battleship.

On Oct. 6, Keil had hoped that crews could repair the line by splicing it.

“We assumed lightning had damaged the wire,” Keil said.

Crews quickly learned that the wire had been damaged beyond repair and were unable to splice the wires. Since this particular wire is no longer manufactured, APS personnel began searching for the wire across the United States. Ultimately, two reels of the wire were located in the Williams APS yard.

“The wire had been in the Williams yard for at least 30 years. It was left over from when the wire was originally installed at the Grand Canyon,” Keil said.

Because of poor flying conditions and locating the proper materials, there were delays in getting back to the job site. On Oct. 16, crews were working on a cliff area above the Red Wall and across Horn Creek on the side of the Battleship to install new wire. At approximately 4 p.m., Keil contacted the heli-base to request the Grand Canyon National Park helicopter be used to retrieve the crew from the Horn Creek area for the day.

At 4:50 p.m., Keil received a call from the heli-base. Keil was told that the NPS helicopter would not be able to assist APS in retrieving crewmembers.

“The guys were not happy,” he said.

The APS systems crew from Phoenix was stranded on top of the cliff formation for the night. The Williams crewmembers had the option to hike three miles to Indian Garden and spend the night in the bunkhouse.

Keil soon learned that the helicopter was not available since it had crashed at 4:50 p.m. — just about eight minutes before it was due to pick-up the APS crewmembers.

“I was pleased that no one onboard the helicopter was injured and that the control failure did not happen over the Canyon,” Keil said.

Because of the helicopter crash, line repairs were further delayed as an investigation took place on Oct. 17. They began pulling wire on Oct. 18 after crews used one of the existing power lines as a trolley. The line was repaired late on Oct. 19 and full power was restored to the entire inner-Canyon at 4:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon visitors and residents had been urged to conserve water since the park had been unable to pump water from Indian Garden to the South Rim as a result of the power outage. It is unknown when the water tank located on the South Rim will reach its full capacity since storage levels are contingent upon usage, Keil said.


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