Power Outages Close More Than 2 Dozen Schools
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - More than two dozen Detroit Public Schools were forced to close early on Tuesday because of what the district says is a major city power outage.
[SEE THE SCHOOL CLOSINGS LIST HERE]
The district announced Tuesday that four Detroit public lighting substations have failures.
The outage comes the same day the Detroit Free Press reported that outages at the district's schools resulted in its schools being shut down three times more often than in the previous school year.
During the 2012-13 school year, schools across the school district missed 39 days because of power outages. So far this school year, with about four months left, 50 schools have missed 130 days. The district also has missed seven days of classes due to weather.
The district's Chief Operating Officer says the magnitude of this year's outages is "extraordinary."
Ongoing problems with the city's aging electrical grid have been a continuing concern in the bankrupt city; and outages such as Friday's are not uncommon. Attributed to "system overload", a widespread outage last summer shut down power to Wayne State University, government buildings and midtown museums for two days.
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