Strong winds cause power outage and school closure at Hayden Canyon Charter School

HAYDEN, Idaho — Strong winds knocked down trees in Hayden Wednesday and left Hayden Canyon Charter School without power.

A line of parents stretched around the building waiting to pick their children up after the school’s announcement to send them home early.

“I’m going to miss school,” said Hayden Charter student Anikah Doms.

School started at 7:30 a.m. but around 10 a.m., strong winds knocked down a tree on Government Way and left the school without power.

The school internet and most of its water relies on electricity, leaving students and staff unable to use any of the bathrooms.

Administrators quickly sent out a message to parents asking them to come pick up their kids.

“I’ve only been here two years and nothing like this has happened,” Hayden Canyon’s safety and security officer Stan Pederson said. “The school is only about five years old so nothing that I know of has happened like this before, but it is good practice for an evacuation.”

Instead of releasing children in staggered groups like usual, parents waited in line to pick up their student. Each student was called down one-by-one, but it took some time to organize the hundreds of students in attendance while the line of parents reached the end of the parking lot.

“The parents have been really patient and I’m sure there’s some perturbance there but what can you do?” said Pederson. “We need to check for the safety and security of the children and the adults. We need to physically check the IDs and that’s what we’re doing.”

Some students were scheduled to go for a hike on Wednesday, but that too was canceled.

School officials still don’t know when power will be restored or when the school will open again.

“I’ve been told that the tree has been removed, the lights are still not on inside. I’m sure Kootenai Electrical or whoever it is going to have to do some overtime to get the power back up,” Pederson said. “I’ve been told that the power all up and down Government Way is out.”