Power Outage Gives Some Missoula Students a Long Weekend

An unexpected power outage at a Missoula school sent kids home early this morning, September 25 for an extra long weekend which will stretch till Tuesday the 29th.

"We have an outage going on effecting Big Sky High school," said Northwest Energy Spokesman Butch Larcomb. "We had a report this morning that they are having electrical problems. We went out and checked into it and found out they have a bad electrical line that feeds the school. We are digging up the line and making repairs, but as a consequence of that, school has been canceled today... I'm sure there are a lot of disappointed students."

Larcombe says the outage is only effecting the high school and that repairs should last until at least the afternoon.

"Underground lines are great: they are squirrel proof and they are usually pretty reliable and that sort of thing, but when you have to repair them it does take longer," Larcombe explained. "We've got to dig it up, repair it, and then bury it again.

The Sentinal High School Homecoming game, which will be played at Big Sky High School stadium is still scheduled to play tonight.

Missoula County Public Schools also issued an email to parents, which is printed below:

Due to an issue with the power being delivered from Northwestern Energy to Big Sky High School, classes at Big Sky High School are cancelled as of 9:00 a.m. Friday, September 25, 2015. Crews from NW Energy and staff at MCPS are onsite working to solve the problem.

Students who use bus transportation will be driven home on normal bus routes departing Big Sky at 9:05. Students who use their own transportation, will be asked to drive home at the same time. Students who need to wait for parents to pick them up will remain on campus in the library or front hallway with staff. Please make arrangements to pickup your student no later than 9:30 a.m. as there will be no power in the building.

At this point, the Sentinel High School homecoming game will run as planned tonight in the Big Sky Stadium.

School will resume on Tuesday, September 29, 2015 after a professional day on Monday, September 28th.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the MCPS Main Office at 728-2400.