EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Aoy Elementary School in South El Paso and Colin L. Powell Elementary in the Northeast were left without power as strong winds knocked down numerous powerlines all across the city on Sunday.

Parents dropped off their children on Monday morning at Aoy, only to find out that the entire school was without electricity as a nearby powerline was damaged.

One parent, Michelle Vera, said she thinks EPISD should have canceled classes for the day.

Instead, the students were bused to neighboring Bowie High School and returned back to Aoy around 1 p.m.

EPISD told KTSM the students and staff were safe despite the outage.

Some parents, like Miriam Guillen, said they agree with the district’s decision to keep classes going.

“I think it’s fine they should have classes. We already had COVID for two years so they need to go to school,” Guillen said.

Over at Powell in Northeast, only part of the building was without power.

“The campus began the school day under modified operations to account for the section of the building that was not operable. All students and staff were safe throughout the day,” said Pablo Villa, spokesperson for EPISD.

He explained that they were ready to bus the students from there as well if it was deemed necessary.

The power was restored to both school a little after 3 p.m. on Monday, according to El Paso Electric.

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