Residents, business and institutions throughout the Burlington area have experienced power outages Wednesday, likely the result of high winds.
At about 1:30 Wednesday, the Burlington Area School District sent an automated message to parents saying that Karcher Middle School and Waller Elementary School had been affected by intermittent outages. However, Superintendent Peter Smet said students are safe and warm and plumbing at both schools is functioning. He said students would be dismissed at their normal times.
We Energies has indicated two areas of outage on Burlington’s southwest side that affect up to 1,000 customers. The utility was dealing with more than 28,000 outages in its service area as of 2 p.m., according to its website.
“The relentless windy conditions continue to cause outages and present a challenge to our crews to safely restore power. The threat of more outages due to the wind gusts in our service territory will remain into tonight,” We Energies stated on its website.
The utility urges people to stay at least 25 feet away from downed power lines. Customers of We Energies may call (800) 662-4797 to report an outage.
The National Weather Service in Sullivan issued a high wind warning for the area at 12:14 p.m., advising that westerly wind gusts up to 60 mph are likely. The warning is in effect until 5 p.m.
According to the Weather Service sustained winds of 40 mph and gusts exceeding 58 mph have the ability to damage buildings.
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