Boom! And like that, it was gone.
There was no literal boom. But like a silent explosion, a power outage earlier this past summer at the Saint Louis Art Museum happened all at once and halted museum operations immediately.
Power is kind of an important ingredient for a museum; when power has been cut, it is hard to study ephemera and artwork on display or even walk the corridors of a building that is specifically designed to keep out sunlight.
For the Saint Louis Art Museum, the loss of electrical power meant that the museum had to close for the rest of the day on July 2, which is when the power went out.
According to Matt Hathaway, a spokesman for the museum, the power went out around 8:45 a.m. Thankfully, the only people in the museum were staffers and a few early visitors. Had there been more visitors, such as a busload or two of children, the power outage could have caused much more trouble.
In that case, it also would have angered the many more people who had chosen to visit that day—or had even planned their vacation around the museum.
It still might have caused frustration, because it is hard for the museum to know who had plans to go.
When it was clear that the power was not coming back on, staff helped guide visitors out of the building. The museum was closed for the rest of the day.
Hathaway could not confirm why the power went out, but said the outage was not the museum’s fault—it rested with the local power utility.
This highlights the ever-present danger faced by businesses of all types. We rely on power, and we generally take it for granted. But power outages happen, and they can cause plenty of financial and operational damage.
The Saint Louis Art Museum lost a day of operation and a little goodwill. How much more would be lost at a restaurant that has food supplies that can spoil, or a business with clients who are waiting on a deadline?
While most businesses would not think about going without insurance, many businesses nonetheless go without the insurance that comes from power protection.
Power protection is necessary to ensure that power outages, which do occur, cause the minimum amount of damage. Critical servers need to keep running, or at least shut down properly. Client work must be saved. Video conferences must go on even if the power goes out.
Power management companies such as Minuteman Power Technologies offer a range of uninterruptible power supply options that can fit the needs of most businesses. Firms that ignore such protection do so at their own risk.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson