An electrical storm hit Beachwood on the night of Aug. 24 causing both the middle and high schools to lose power and canceling school for students on Friday. 

 A string of storms and tornadoes hit Northeast Ohio Thursday night, causing severe damage to infrastructure and impacting thousands, according to cleveland.com. The storms created widespread power outages, and more than 50,000 people in Cuyahoga County did not have access to electricity the following day.

After receiving alerts through the computer network after power was lost, families of Beachwood students were contacted about the loss of power through email as well as a robot phone call. 

Parents and guardians can choose to receive these emergency calls when completing annual forms with the district.

“These calls have to [be] opt[ed] into Infinite Campus,” Principal Paul Chase said. 

Chase explained that families were informed promptly by email around 7 a.m. on Friday morning. Multiple emails were also sent to update students and parents that day and throughout the weekend. 

The power came back on Sunday, Aug. 27 in the high school, and power was restored to the middle school early Monday morning. 

“First Energy, [the electrical company], needed to address downed power lines [and] once power was restored to one of our buildings, we [had to] go through a process of checking all systems and monitoring that they are all functioning properly … before we opened the building back up for school,” Superintendent  Dr. Bob Hardis said.

Both Chase and Hardis said no physical damage was done to Beachwood Middle and High Schools, but there were downed trees and debris at Fairmount Preschool, which did not close. Both Bryden and Hilltop Elementary School stayed open on Friday and the following Monday as minimal damage affected the two schools.

“Between 10 and 15% of the total customers [in the city of Beachwood] were out of power over a three day period with all of the power restored by Aug. 27,”  said Chris Aritta, the Public Works Director for the City of Beachwood. 

According to Aritta, crews began working overtime beginning early morning on that Friday to open up roads and sidewalks and to remove debris from residential tree lawns. 

Losing power led to a change in plans and usual routines for many families. Junior Amy Zhou, says that her family spent all four days without power.

 “We played Clue and did one of those murder mystery solving games, which was a nice change from what [we] usually did over the weekend,” she said.