No sooner had they arrived at school, students at two Tilbury elementary schools were being sent back home again.
Wednesday’s ice storm knocked out power to a number of communities across Chatham-Kent, and officials with the Lambton Kent and St Clair Catholic District School Boards say with uncertainty around the estimated time of restoration, the decision was made to close Tilbury Area Public School and St. Joseph Catholic School just before 10 o’clock Thursday morning.
Students at Indian Creek Road Public School in Chatham were also sent home just before the noon-hour.
Harwich-Raleigh Public School, Blenheim District High School, Merlin Area Public School, W.J. Baird Public School, St Anne Catholic, St Michael Catholic, Ste Catherine Catholic, and Wheatley Area Public School remained closed today.
School buses across Chatham-Kent and Lambton County were cancelled earlier this morning because of inclement weather conditions.
The 401 was shut down in both directions near Tilbury this morning to allow hydro crews room repair powerlines that run across the highway.
Meantime, crews from Hydro One, Entegrus, and some neighbouring utilities continue working to restore power to areas across Chatham-Kent.
Officials with Entegrus say Hydro One and its own circuits have been damaged in Blenheim, leaving roughly 1300 people without power. Crews are also working to repair a broken hydro pole and damaged feeder in Wheatley, and a damaged fuse in Chatham. Residents in Erieau are still without power as well. Service has been restored to most customers in Ridgetown.
Hydro One is dealing with dozens of outages of its own, stretching from Tilbury to Thamesville.
While Entegrus hasn’t issued an estimated time of restoration, Hydro One expects to have most of its customers back online by 4 this afternoon.