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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why can't they just do 2 hours late? Power has been restored, so just have the staff check that is school is functional. 
I can't take off work today and have 2 elementary school kids.[/quote]

Because you have no idea what you are talking about.

The power tower that he crashed into was a point in the power grid for the eastern seaboard including the northeast and the midatlantic.  They diverted power from the tower to other towers.  It took several hours to ground the tower and surrounding area to ensure that power was dispersed before they could begin rescue.  The rescue was performed, but they still have to disentangle the plane from the cables, then the power company will be repairing the tower.  Once done, they will have a likely additional power outage to restore the tower into the grid.  The current grid diverted around this tower is not long-term sustainable.

When they cut power to restore the grid, it is unknown how long that outage will be.  It is also unknown when it will happen, but likely sometime today.  The uncertainty of if/when power will go out again and for how long means that the schools cannot plan around such a potential outage.  They don't want to have kids in school when there is no power or HVAC.  They don't want to have kids in school when phone lines may go down and they can't call for emergency or for parents to come and pick up their children.  They don't want kids in school when they may not have power to provide meals for the children (or that food taken out and partially cooked is ruined and has to be discarded.  They don't want kids on school buses when whole areas may lose power and traffic lights.

I'm sorry you're so inconvenienced, but the safety of your children is far more important than any work you have.  And the schools cannot guarantee children's safety in large numbers with the number of unknowns about the power restoration process.[/quote]

But by this logic, shouldn't other services be shut down too?  So people don't get stranded in elevators, etc. in case the power goes out again?  It seems like there should be a targeted shutdown of schools and businesses in the affected area, but let them open in areas that were unaffected.

I mean, whatever, it's one day, but when central office decided to give themselves a vacation too this has a ripple effect on daycares, etc. that follow the MCPS admin office closures.[/quote]

Your argument makes no sense. No it is not comparable to adults in an elevator that can just take the stairs....[/quote]

NP. The scenario involves adults already in elevators when power goes out. Unless you’re recommending people just take the stairs all day today, which is basically what pp was suggesting. [/quote]

That argument is a poor one.  If/when the power company is planning on shutting down the power for a switchover to restore the grid to it's designed configuration, they aren't just going to flip the switch at a moment's notice.  They are going to publicize an outage time and get it to all the media stations, social media and will alert millions of people about it.  [b]There will be notices, business will be able to put signs up not to use the elevators after a certain time and make plans.  The amount of time it takes for a small business or building to alert customers and residents about the power outage is a matter of minutes. [/b] Coordinating getting students that are in a school back home takes hours.  How long does it take when a school makes an emergency shutdown notice to when the students are all out of the building?  They have to initiate the call tree to parents, they have to get staff to organize the kids, they have to call the bus contractor and make arrangements and the bus contractors have a schedule of which schools and routes to handle at which times.  And they need to alert the drivers of the time changes and if there are any schedule accommodations that need to be made.

You are trying to equate the difference between a small and big organizational change and it doesn't just scale easily because the complexity factor is exponentially bigger.[/quote]

DP, but I think this is a bit more complicated than you let on.  Who would ensure than a planned outage would be communicated effectively to the affected area?  WHat about disabled people who cannot easily use the stairs?  How would it affect traffic lights?  I think it's good that they were able to avoid this.

But anyway, I guess I'm not understanding why ALL the schools needed to be closed today, unless it has something to do with the bus depot or a service that would affect the entire district.  MCPS has certainly closed individual schools for outages before.  Unless there was some indication that Pepco was going to be cutting the power county-wide, which who knows, maybe there was.[/quote]

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