Parents of kids who spent hours in P.E.I. school without power call for a generator

The power is back on at a school in western P.E.I. after students were left in the dark Monday without water or phone lines for hours.

Now, some parents at St. Louis Elementary want to know why it doesn't have a generator, and why their kids weren't sent home early.

"I'm shocked that the schools, and any government building, does not have a backup generator — especially on this windy Island that we have," said Debbie Knox, whose daughter is in Grade 5.

Thousands of P.E.I. utility customers were without power Monday as high winds swept across the province. Knox's daughter told her that classes continued after the lights went out.

"She said they were in the dark a lot, and that they didn't get a lot of work done while they were here."

Some parents said they would have liked to have been notified so that they could pick their kids up.

"Our Internet was out and... not everyone is fortunate enough to have generators. So we had no way to contact the school," said Carter Culleton, whose daughter is a student.

"Their phones were down. They put posts on Facebook — but how do you access that without service?"

Carter Culleton, the father of a student at St. Louis Elementary, said he had no way of knowing what was going on at the school because his internet service was out. (Stacey Janzer/CBC)

The outage scared his daughter, he said. "Even at home if the power blinks, she's like 'Oh, is the power going out?' It's probably one of her biggest fears."

Generators "definitely" need to be installed, he said. "It's 2023. You see all these brand-new facilities going up around the communities... We need to think about our school system too."

Knox agrees. And they both wonder what would have happened if Monday had been a cold, wintry day.

"They lose power, the school's gonna get cold really fast," Knox said.

Early dismissal was considered

In a statement, the Public Schools Branch told CBC News it considered early dismissal, but it would have been difficult to do in part because of bus schedules. Also, the estimated time of restoration kept changing.

"The decision to maintain the school schedule at St. Louis Elementary was made using the most relevant information available to the PSB at the time and with the safety of students and staff in mind," the statement said in part.

"The PSB engaged with Maritime Electric who provided an estimated time of restoration of 1:20 pm. At 1 pm, due to unforeseen circumstances, an updated restoration time of 1:50 pm was given to PSB officials."

The PSB said it will collaborate with school administrators to ensure the building's readiness in the future.

CBC News reached out to two provincial departments to find out about generators at Island schools but did not get a response.