Rain causes power outages in L.A. schools
A woman walks through steady rainfall on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
Southern California’s record-breaking rainfall on Tuesday caused power outages to some schools in Los Angeles Unified.
As of 1 p.m., at least five schools were affected, a district spokeswoman said via email. Those schools were:
- Fernangeles Elementary School in Sun Valley
- 112th Street Early Education Center
- Resolute Academy Charter School, which shares 112th Street’s campus
- Aspire Academy in South Gate
- Christa McAuliffe Early Education Center in South Gate
Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood also suffered a power outage for about two hours Tuesday morning, but electricians said it may not have been related to the rain, Assistant Principal Debra Jelin said.
The outage lasted from the beginning of the day until about noon at Fernangeles Elementary, said the school’s plant manager, Sal Rivas. School ended today at 1:19 p.m.
The district brought in a generator to power the cafeteria and auditorium so that students would be able to receive meals, said Fernangeles Elementary’s principal, Anna Martinez. The outage was caused by a nearby power pole that was damaged, most likely from lightning.
The school functioned without lights or air conditioning, and teachers opened their blinds and windows to facilitate ventilation and bring in light, Martinez said. Students were able to work out of notebooks, and teachers relied on old-school pencil-and-paper copying instead of projectors and photocopied worksheets.
Fernangeles has about 750 students and 35 classrooms, Martinez said.
The most difficult issue was the loss of phone lines — Martinez sent a message to parents from her cellphone to inform them of the power outage and to let them know the school’s phones would be down. Parents could call the district to reach the school, and the school’s administrators and teachers used cellphones if they needed to make calls, Martinez said.
“We were able to make it through the day, thank goodness,” Martinez said.
Reach Sonali Kohli on Twitter @sonali_kohli or by email at [email protected].
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