Hundreds of homes, five schools in Whatcom without power. Here’s why
A Whatcom Transportation Authority bus hit a power pole about 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, causing an electrical outage that affected hundreds of homes and businesses in the northwest part of Ferndale, including five schools and the school district office.
WTA spokeswoman Maureen McCarthy said the driver on Route 27 might have suffered a medical emergency and struck the power pole, taking down some power lines near Vista Middle School, 6051 Vista Drive.
“The driver was transported to St. Joseph Hospital via ambulance. (We are) waiting to learn more about her condition,” McCarthy told The Bellingham Herald.
At least four passengers were on the bus, but no other injuries were reported, McCarthy said in an email.
WTA sent another bus to pick up the passengers, and Route 27 ran on a temporary detour while a PSE crew made repairs, the bus agency tweeted.
McCarthy said that the law requires a test of the driver for drug and alcohol use after a crash.
Power was out for about 2,400 Puget Sound Energy customers, a figure that was soon reduced to about 1,200 customers, according to the utility company’s website.
PSE expected that power would be restored by 6 p.m. Thursday.
Thursday’s outage affected the Ferndale School District administrative office, as well as Vista and Horizon middle schools and Cascadia, Eagle Ridge and Skyline elementary schools, according to a PSE map of the outage.
Calls and emails to the school district weren’t immediately returned Thursday, and a school official told The Herald that phones and email communications were affected by the outage.
In an email to parents and staff later Thursday, Superintendent Kristi Dominguez said changes were made in the way food was prepared and served for lunch and staff took other steps at the affected schools to ensure minimal disruption for classes.
“Our food service teams were quick to make a menu change based on which buildings had power for hot food, and which required sandwich meals. Facilities maintenance crew reacted and provided resources such as bringing generators to buildings where we had students with special accommodations and medical devices,” Dominguez said.
“(Our) transportation team assessed routes, pick-up zones, and walking zones that were impacted with road closures and made alternate plans for all students,” she said.
In addition, the district’s information technology staff worked to minimize the outage’s effect on email and district office staff helped staff at other schools with alternate dismissal plans to ensure students were picked up and guided to walking routes safely, Dominguez said.
This story was originally published February 9, 2023 at 2:29 PM.
