With only emergency lighting, the Anacortes School Board went ahead with their scheduled 6:15 pm meeting Thursday evening despite a widespread power outage that struck all of Fidalgo Island, the San Juans and the rest of Skagit County.
Only 2 overhead lights, powered by an emergency generator, were lit the Board Room. During and after the Board meeting, school administrators discussed how to get the word out early Friday morning should the electricity still be off, forcing cancellation of classes.
Power went out around 6pm, just 15 minutes before the Board meeting. The School Board relies on computers to move through their agenda, but they moved as best they could with their PCs.
Early reports indicated the power outage may have been caused when a vehicle ran into a power pole on Highway 20 between Sedro-Woolley and Burlington around 5:30.
Anacortes' only radio station, KWLE, the Whale, was also off the air for awhile. Power started to be restored to parts of Anacortes shortly before 8pm.
The outage also affected parts of Whatcom and Snohomish counties.