- It was "lights out" in Nephi on Monday afternoon
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By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Nephi's electric power suddenly went off Monday at about 1 p.m.
"An automated protection device kicked in when maintenance was being attempted on a breaker at the Nephi City point of delivery from Rocky Mountain Power's transmission lines," said Randy McKnight, city administrator.
Nephi schools were dismissed at about 1:00 p.m. after Rocky Mountain Power estimated that it would take approximately an hour and a half more to get the system up and running again.
"After receiving notice from the power company that it could possibly be an hour and a half before power was restored, we decided to dismiss early," said Jim Shank, superintendent. "The decision was based upon the extreme cold weather and how quickly the temperatures begin to fall without heat in the schools. In the past, we have typically remained in session until the power was restored. However, when working from a context of 3 degrees and no heat, a decision to 'wait it out' was simply not possible."
"We had an unexpected opportunity to practice our emergency procedures today in a non-emergency setting, and we learned a lot," said Sandy Nielsen, Red Cliffs Elementary School Principal.
Nielsen thanked parents for their patience and support as they worked to get students checked out of school.
Each of the principals was thankful for the way parents responded to the outage.
The power was off until the system could be reset.
"A crew had to come from American Fork to clear the problem and reset the system," said McKnight.
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