Chapel Hill students faced an unexpected disruption today when a power outage forced two local schools to close their doors and send children home. Estes Hills Elementary School and Guy B. Phillips Middle School were both affected, resulting in an early end to the school day for students and a switch to remote working conditions for staff. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools communicated through social media that the outage was much more significant than originally assessed, as reported by CBS17.
A spokesperson from the Town of Chapel Hill explained that the cause of the outage was a tree that had fallen overnight on power lines along North Elliot Road, near the impacted schools. Though power was initially expected to quickly be restored by 7 a.m., crews from Duke Energy were still hard at work to safely bring back electricity, now hoping to have services back up by approximately 5:30 p.m. This update came from a statement acquired by WRAL.
The sudden closure of the schools caused a scramble for arrangements to be made for the students who had already arrived or were en route. According to ABC11, both Estes Hills Elementary and Phillips Middle School actively worked to ensure that all students were safely dismissed following the unexpected announcement. Staff members were directed to not come into the buildings, and instead, to conduct their responsibilities remotely.