UPDATE ON NOV 4: Power has been completely restored to the property and the hotel-casino is back to business as usual. Paris Las Vegas says it does not expect any issues going forward.
They also said in a press conference early Friday morning that their focus is continuing to take care of their customers who are understandably frustrated. In addition to reimbursing guests for the night they lost, Paris is also offering guests 2 free night stays to use whenever they want, or a $200 credit.
But despite that offering of goodwill, some guests we spoke with are fed up.
"It was the worst trip ever," says Jovita Torok who is visiting from Canada.
She says she was forced to spend the night at a nightclub with a couch. Torok says she wasn't able to get to her belongings for 15 hours.
Others, like Curt and Lori Neville from Massachusetts say Paris also wasn't able to find them another room that night. They had to stay with friends staying at the Venetian.
They're glad Paris is offering the free nights, but say "they weren't prepared" for handling the outage.
Caesars Entertainment, who owns the Paris, isn't releasing information on the contractor involved in the outage.
"Contractors were authorized to be here doing work on the subfloor so they were authorized and they were doing work, but that's not the work we expected," said Rich Broome with Caesars Entertainment.
Broome said the contractors were supposed to be repairing the floor before they cut through the main power line and back-up generator.
"I can say that the contractor wasn't supposed to cut the main power line and shut all the power down," Broome said.
13 Action News reached out to the Nevada Contractors Association about how something like this could have happened. They say casinos are constantly undergoing renovations and reengineering.
"Electricians on this project, and probably other looks like it, are probably some of the best trained electricians in the world," said Dan O'Shea with the association.
O'Shea said cutting into a main power line that powerful could have been deadly.
Paris has also thanked the Clark County Fire Department, Las Vegas police, Nevada Gaming Control Board and their employees whose help made the difficult situation as manageable as possible.
If anyone who was affected needs help, they should call 1-866-635-6995 or 702-667-1795.
UPDATE AT 10:25 p.m.: Caesars Entertainment released a new statement as power was being restored at Paris Las Vegas Thursday night.
"After an unexpected outage, power at the Paris hotel is in the process of being restored. The Clark County Fire Department is currently conducting tests of the fire life safety systems which is expected to take approximately two hours.
Once that test has been successfully completed, guests who have already checked into the hotel will be allowed to reenter the property. Additionally, guests can use their existing room keys to access their rooms, new keys should not be necessary. Guests who were not able to check in today are asked to remain at their reassigned locations until tomorrow morning.
We want to again apologize to our guests who were inconvenienced during this unforeseen event, and let them know that we greatly appreciate their patience as we work to resolve this problem.
In order to allow for an orderly reentry into the property, media are asked to stay at the current staging location and not to enter the property once it reopens.
Additional details will be provided at the 6 a.m. press briefing."
UPDATE AT 10:15 p.m.: Lights are coming back on at Paris Las Vegas. Safety checks are underway inside before the hotel-casino can reopen.
UPDATE AT 6:06 p.m.: A press conference that was scheduled for 9 p.m. was moved up as the sun set.
Paris Las Vegas is looking for accommodations for its guests at other casinos on the Strip, including competitors.
Statement from Caesars Entertainment:
Since we are not able to determine the exact time power will be restored to Paris we have decided to help all of our displaced guests find other accommodations for the evening.
In case of emergency, guests will be allowed to return to their room with a security escort to retrieve essential items such as medications.
We deeply regret the inconvenience that this unexpected outage has caused our guests and are doing everything we can to remedy this unfortunate situation.
Management is stationed at the main entrance of Paris in order to help any guests who need assistance with relocation or have questions. Displaced guests are encouraged to check in with the front desk at their temporary hotel, or with our social media channels, in the morning for additional updates.
Any guests who have reservations at Paris, but have yet to check in are being directed to Bally’s front desks where they will be provided with accommodations.
The next press briefing will take place tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. at Paris, Las Vegas.
UPDATE AT 4 p.m.: There is no time available on when the power will be restored. Evacuations of the whole building are advised of fire department. The fire chief will decide when people can get back in. The fire suppression system ran out of battery, that's what caused the mandatory evacuation. 11 people were rescued out of 5 elevators No injuries reported.
The fire department is 60% complete with evacuations. Officials helped 20 disabled people evacuate. Approximately 3,000 people were evacuated. They will find rooms for everyone tonight if it's still on going. Caesars Entertainment is making sure guests are not financially harmed by this event
UPDATE AT 2:06 p.m.: Caesars Entertainment released the following statement:
UPDATE: Caesars Entertainment says they are suspending all hotel and casino operations at Paris Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip as a result of this outage. At least 2 people had to be rescued from elevators.
They released the following statement:
“We can confirm that as of approximately 9:45am all power to the Paris property was lost as the result of onsite construction. Out of an abundance of caution we are closing our casino, restaurant and hotel operations. We are working closely with NV Energy to immediately restore power and will provide more details as they become available.”
ORIGINAL STORY:
NV Energy is reporting a power outage at Paris Las Vegas. The outage was reported at 9:56 a.m. Thursday.
Several users on Twitter were corresponding with the hotel, who says they are working to restore power. Backup generators don't appear to be functioning.
Power out at the Paris Las Vegas #oops somebody is in trouble #vegas #strip pic.twitter.com/QIiTLjVsER
— Scott Lang (@slang_103) November 3, 2016
@shortnole Hi, Christy. We are awaiting generators right now, and power should be up soon. Thank you for your patience!
— Paris Las Vegas (@ParisVegas) November 3, 2016
13 Action News will post updates as they become available.
Power problems @ParisVegas #oops Hope you get it sorted soon ? pic.twitter.com/PHwzcaiXbK
— Celine Las Vegas (@celinelasvegas) November 3, 2016
