The decision to close SDA was made by District Superintendent Ken Noah, with guidance from the San Diego County Board of Education, according to Principal Tim Hornig.
‘It was not only concerns with students being on campus with no power and safety problems, but also transportation issues [that prompted the school closure],” said Hornig.
There will most likely be no additional day of school as a result of the closure on Friday, according to Hornig. “This school is well over on our banked minutes [of required instructional time], there’s a little bit above and beyond for these things,” said Hornig.
Four to five students and one substitute came to school on Friday because they did not receive the phone and email messages, said Hornig.
The blackout stretched from Arizona to Northern Mexico, SDG&E officials said. Power was restored in most parts of the region 12 hours after the power outage began, but the power failure does have some long term effects. Over two million gallons of sewage spilled into the Los Penasquitos Lagoon and Sweetwater River as treatment plants went without power, prompting beach closures from Scripps Pier to Cardiff, said San Diego County officials.
SDG&E officials say the outage was due to operator error in Arizona, which set off a chain-reaction of events that made the outage so widespread. Further investigation of the cause will be carried out by California ISO.
Mustang staff members Angela Zhang, Kianna Eberle, and Sarah Kochanek contributed to this story.
So, SDA, what did you do when the power went out?
“I ate all the ice cream in my freezer,” said sophomore Emily Jung.
“My neighborhood had a big block party and connected the TV to the car so we could watch the football game. We cooked all the frozen foods we had, and had ice cream and just hung out until the power came back on,” said sophomore Sara Shuldberg.
“I ran in circles in the dark when I found out there was no school,” said senior Erin Rosenberg.
“I went to Flippin’ Pizza because they had a generator, and then went and ate it above the beach. It was super cool because with the neighborhood lights off you could see all the stars and you could hardly tell where skyline was on the water,” said sophomore Annie Smith.
“My mom’s friend brought us an electric candle. It even smelled like vanilla. I put it on the living room coffee table, and watched it,” said senior Austin Stubbs.
“I played laser tag in my house,” said sophomore Karen Vela.
“My friends were stranded without gas, so I had them over for dinner. After that we played Clue by candle light,” said senior Benjamin Breidenthal.
“I sat with a circle of candles around me, blasting Dire Straits into the darkness of Lone Jack Road,” said senior Cameron Koob.
“I washed my car!” said junior Mike Guhl.
Are you interested in sharing what you did during the power outage? Email sdamustang@gmail.com with your stories.