At 7:20 a.m., a power outage has darkened traffic signals at Highway 50 intersections with Highway 45, Highway 83 (south) and Highway B as well as Central High School.
Deputies are heading to the intersections to put out stop signs.
Dispatch reports that We Energies does not know the cause of the outage yet, but that it may extend from our area to Burlington.
Note: Our cable internet service also seems to be out, though we have power in Paddock Lake. Coming to you via wireless broadband, so keep checking for updates. — DH
UPDATE 7:30 a.m — Signals also out at Highway 50 and 246th Avenue (at Central entrance exit) and Highway 83 and AH.
UPDATE 8:23 a.m. — Central High School students being released, per deputy reporting to dispatch (also have seen a lot of cars full of high schoolers over last few minutes on Paddock Lake streets).
UPDATE 8:26 a.m. — Central robo call says school is cancelled. Students with rides have been released. Buses coming back to transport others.
UPDATE 8:33 a.m. — Just got another Central robo that says kids are being held at school. Are these out of order?
UPDATE 8:34 a.m. — Deputy reports that traffic signals at Highways 45 and 50 are on again.
UPDATE 8:45 a.m. — Received robo call from Salem School saying children are being brought into the school, but school has been cancelled. It asks you to make arrangements to pick-up students as soon as possible.
UPDATE 8:53 a.m. — Cathy Schulze, spokesman for We Energies, says all power was restored by 8:30 a.m. No word yet on the cause; crews are still investigating. About 5,700 customers were effected.
UPDATE 9:11 a.m. — Latest robo call from Salem School confirms that school is cancelled for the day. Power has been restored to the building and students are now in their classrooms. However, school officials are still asking that arrangements be made to pick-up students. Those picking up students are asked to check out students at the main office on the west side of the building (a.k.a the Highway AH side).
UPDATE 11:13 a.m. — We Energies Schulze reports that power outage was due to “equipment malfunction.”
It seems that 226th Avenue in the Montgomery Highlands subdivision has also been out for at least 30 minutes. Not sure if whole subdivision is out or just this street.
Power is back on in Silver Lake as of 5 minutes ago
WOW i was in the libraiy when the lights went off. Students were runing and yelling in the halls and it was just plain KAYOSS for the first 10 min, 20 min after the lights went off sheriff deupadys escorted myself and around 30 other students to the AP room. If they were trying to lockdown the school and keep order they failed, kids were runing everywere and it was a mess. They need to have a better plan if this happens again, no one knew if there was a power outage or a gunman, it was pretty nerveracking!