As amazing as it would be ... it almost seems like this had never happened in a major high-rise building ... because there has been no apparant procedure being followed, rather everything has been one "Uh-oh!" after another.
Admittedly, one would think that things would be designed so that the main electrical conduit system was segregated from any possible water infiltration by multiple levels of fail-safe sub-systems. We, of course, have no detailed information of HOW THE HELL condensation out-flow from the new A/C units on the roof managed to get TO the main buss channels (aside from the story about the pipes having scale build-up and the drains being blocked with pebbles), let alone ending up using those for drainage before blowing something out halfway down. One would think that that would be the LAST place that water would be allowed to be ... with lots of "other options" in place (including just letting it run off the rooftop) to channel it away from the electric systems. I mean, it would be one thing if the building was submerged (of course, were there 600ft of standing water in downtown Chicago, our power system would be the least of the problems!), but we're only talking condensation run-off from the A/C units (admittedly, BIG ones to cool a 660-unit building, that no doubt produce a lot of water) here ... a hose over the edge of the roof would work as a low-tech back-up system (although being irritating to folks on the street)!
We've been back-and-forth on the Hotel option, and it looks like we're going to be toughing things out here. I still can't get to my other e-mail, and I need to print up some fresh resumes, but I guess if it comes to that I can run a LONG set of extension cords back to my office (the place where we have "pirated" power is via a 15-ft cord into The Wife's office on the other side of the apartment) to fire up my system long enough to pull those files.
Bleh. Stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress ...