Crystal Lake Central students and staff sent home early due to power outage

Community High School District 155′s Crystal Lake Central High School ended school early Wednesday due to a power outage during a heat warning.

Busses began taking students home at 1:30 p.m, district spokesperson Shannon Podzimek said. A decision on whether school would be in session Thursday had yet to be determined. Power had been restored to the facility later in the day.

“We will continue to monitor it throughout the afternoon and evening before making a determination about school tomorrow,” Podzimek said.

Crystal Lake Central’s power went out because of a failed transformer, said David O’Dowd, a ComEd spokesperson. O’Dowd originally said there was also a cable fault but later learned that was not the case.

“We don’t know if it’s from the heat, but we will know soon,” he said.

Electricity was restore at the high school at 5:30 p.m. after workers replaced the failed transformer that had become overloaded, O’Dowd said.

Temperatures reached 96 degrees Wednesday with a heat index reaching 115 degrees. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for McHenry County and surrounding areas until 8 p.m. Thursday.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated Thursday afternoon with new information from ComEd about the cause of the outage. One of the explanations initially provided was found not to be the case.