It was like running out of gas at the start of an auto race. The office of Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft Corp.'s main public relations firm, was struck by an electrical power outage on Oct. 19 just as its client's antitrust trial kicked off in Washington, D.C.

The outage struck at 7 a.m. and affected much of southwest Portland, Ore., where Waggener Edstrom is based. Power wasn't restored until 9:30 a.m.

The firm's communications problems dragged on until 2 p.m., however, because the outage wrecked a computer that provided Internet E-mail access to journalists from its Portland (Ore.), Bellevue (Wash.), and Santa Clara (Calif.) offices. Senior Vice-President Pam Edstrom says the outage was certainly inconvenient, but "we were able to use phones and faxes to get the work done."

By Steve Hamm in San Mateo, Calif.