Power failure at Merrick Middle School

The first day of classes at Merrick Middle School was canceled Tuesday after an "electrical power problem" led the Long Island Power Authority to request students be sent home for safety reasons so the agency could repair the problem, a school spokeswoman said.

But many children remain at the school, and LIPA won't be able to start work until after the regular dismissal at 2:15 p.m.

LIPA "couldn't work on the building until they get everybody out," said school spokeswoman Michelle Gagnon. "They were going to keep the kids, but LIPA said they had to shut down the whole building for the safety of the kids." The building has half power, she said.

Many parents could not immediately pick up their children, and an unspecified number remain at the school in the auditorium, Gagnon said. She said they have been fed, and a full contingent of staff remains at the school to supervise the seventh- and eighth-graders.

About 900 students attend the school.

A LIPA spokeswoman wasn't immediately reachable.

The outage follows a long week for nearly half of Long Island ratepayers who were hit with an outage. LIPA restored nearly all of them by Monday, but there were thousands of outages Tuesday.

One of the children sent home from Merrick Middle School was the daughter of State Sen. Charles Fuschillo, who last week said he was "totally disgusted" with LIPA's storm efforts.

Fuschillo (R-Merrick) said it's not just Merrick Middle School affected by continuing outages. He said constituents called him Tuesday with power problems and during the Labor Day weekend.

"It's an ongoing problem," Fuschillo said.