Electricity Outage Closes

Sandy Hook School For A Day

By Tanjua Damon

If Sandy Hook Elementary students went to bed Monday night wishing for school to be closed Tuesday, their wish came true and it was not because of inclement weather. Instead, it was a power outage that gave the students and faculty of one of Newtown’s elementary schools an unexpected day off.

School buildings and grounds supervisor Dominic Posca explained this week that the school was getting a food delivery early Tuesday morning when a Marriott truck became snagged in utility wire, which resulted in the utility pole being broken. Mr Posca said the school’s custodian, Dennis Best, called him to let him know that there were wires down and it would take some time to have everything restored.

Newtown police reported this week that Joseph L. Derusha, 26, of Worcester, Mass., was driving a refrigerated tractor-trailer truck and making a food delivery to the Riverside Road school about 6 am on September 11. He pulled out of the school’s parking lot in dark, foggy conditions, and apparently did not see some low-hanging overhead utility lines. The truck then hit the wires, pulling them off utility poles. There were no injuries.

Sandy Hook firefighters, Connecticut Light & Power workers, and telephone company workers went to the scene. Because rehanging the wires would take several hours, school was cancelled for the day.

The Sandy Hook School community arrived back to school Wednesday. Most likely, students will not be expected to make up the one day since they still meet the state’s requirements to be in school 180 days. Newtown students are scheduled to attend 183 days this year. The last day of school is scheduled for June 18.

(Bee reporter Andy Gorosko contributed to this story.)