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Feb 26, 2008 9:29 pm US/Eastern
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Power Outage Leads To After-School Cancellations
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Tuesday's massive power outage across South Florida and the rest of the state caused major headaches for schools, students and parents at dismissal time.
When the outage first took place shortly before 1:00 p.m., school officials in both Miami-Dade County placed schools on a "soft" lockdown which meant students were not being allowed to leave until a parent or a guardian picked them up and signed them out of class.
They also said that no school buses would be allowed to travel on roads without working traffic lights.
However, as the afternoon went on, and power continued to be restored, Miami-Dade school officials decided to allow school buses on the road and they stressed that parents should avoid driving as school buses began delivering students near their homes again.
Along with public schools in Miami-Dade, all Catholic schools run by the Archdiocese of Miami were holding students after dismissal, but parents were able to pick up their children.
Miami-Dade Public Schools cancelled all athletic after-curricular activities. Night school classes have been cancelled.
In Broward County, seven public high schools and elementary schools lost power. They include Flanagan High, Pines Middle, Davie Elementary, McNab Elementary, Nova Eisenhower and Nova Blanche Forman Elementary Schools. Other schools, including Cooper City High, Hawkes Bluff and Pasadena Lakes elementary schools lost and regained power during the afternoon.
Broward students were dismissed according to their regular schedules, however, private buses were not running so parents were encouraged to pick up their students from school in person.
The YWCA of Great Miami-Dade closed its after-school care and early learning centers due to the outage and asked parents to pick up their children early.
Miami Beach Parks & Recreation facilities were operating normal after-school and evening programs.
All University of Miami operations are on normal schedules. Florida International University also has power, except for its engineering campus. All Miami Dade College campuses are operational with the exception of some buildings. Evening classes and activities will proceed as normally scheduled.
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