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I got sent out onto the roof to find water deep enough that it was backing up into the HVAC unit and down the duct work ruinig about 45 ceiling tiles, and causing considerable damage to seat cushions.

Why didn't the drains acomodate the rain which was about an hour from hitting its peak? Someone had left a Gatorade bottle on the roof which perfectly plugged the drain hole at the edge of the roof.

Oddly enough - NO - our power went out for 5 minutes and then came back on. Our half of the shopping center was the only part of town with power for about 2 hours.

Our itty-bitty 5-plex was the busiest theatre that night. Oh it was lovely.

I later found that our half of the shopping center is on the same grid as the local hospital --- so when they work on restoring power - they restore it to the hospital's grid first.

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Several drive-ins here in Melbourne lost part of their screens at various times. Sometimes the show went on until repairs were made by kicking the machines over if the show was in w/s.

All drive-ins I worked in had standby generators, so were OK when the power went out.

A couple suffered from fog. One night at Maribyrnong drive-in, the first feature was fine, then literally in 15 minutes of intermission you could not see either screen, fog passes issued to all!

I also know of one drive-in that used to flood.

Come to think of it electrical storms always made for a weird atmosphere at the drive-in, with thunder claps and flashes of lightening.

Unless the power was completely off, or no one showed up, we never stopped a film due to the weather --- the show went on through torrential downpours, thunderstorms, snow, and fog.

Never stopped for rain though, no matter how heavy.

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A few years ago I was working a relief shift at the Lincoln Theater (1926, mostly original architecturally) in Mt. Vernon Washington. The booth (which protrudes into the auditorium)is about three stories above the sidewalk, booth floor is about 12 feet above rear of auditorium, and is attached to the auditorium rear wall and suspended from the ceiling. It is accessed by a ladder attached to the outside of the booth. When someone heavy climbs the ladder the booth shakes a bit. The building is wood frame.

Somewhere during the second reel I felt the booth floor shake a bit and assumed that Peter the manager was coming up to chat. I happened to look through a port into the auditorium and was amazed to see that patrons were rushing out of the theater! Simultaneously I heard a large roaring sound and realized the that two Simplex E7/Peerless Magnarc projectors were dancing around the booth. Earthquake!! Faster than I thought possible I opened the DC knife switch on the pedestal, shut down the E7, pulled up the resistive dimmer bank for the house white lights, dived out the door and slid down the ladder and was the last one out of the theater onto the street.

Fortunately the quake was short, and a quick check of the theater revealed no damage. About 100 or so of the 120-some patrons stayed, and the show went on. I did have to take a pry bar and move the projectors back into position on the fly- they were pointing the right direction, but about 6 or 10 inches off center line to the screen.

At a trade show a few years ago, someone showed me some photos of a booth where the projectors and platters had been pulled out of position, and even tipped on their side, claiming that this was due to a platter feed failure with super-strong polyester film stock. My immediate skepticism made him admit the photos were really taken just after an earthquake.

That's not to say that theatres don't need to follow Kodak's long-standing recommendation to have tension-sensing failsafes to stop the projector in the event of a platter jam. Most of the platter manufacturers now have these available, and others are made by companies like Kelmar, Teco, and Avask.