photo by: Dylan Lysen/Lawrence Journal-World

Lawrence Public Schools district offices pictured in April 2021.

A power outage has caused the Lawrence public school district to cancel classes at Deerfield Elementary today, March 5. Classes at all other schools in the Lawrence district are being held as scheduled. The power outage was discovered at Deerfield, 101 Lawrence Avenue, before the normal start of classes on Wednesday.

Classes at other locations continued on despite some icy roads and sidewalks throughout Lawrence. The area was in a blizzard warning Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning as a light snow and strong winds created dangerous conditions overnight. The National Weather Service in Topeka expects some blowing snow until about 1 p.m. today. Winds are expected to decrease to about 15 to 20 miles per hour in the afternoon. Today’s high is expected to reach about 40 degrees.

As of about 9 a.m., electric utility provider Evergy reported that about 2,000 Lawrence customers were without power. The outages were scattered throughout the community. Across its entire service area in Kansas and Missouri, Evergy estimated about 31,000 customers were without power, or about 2% of its total customer base.

The utility company hasn’t made any estimates for when power will be restored. In an update on its website, the company said it remained concerned about the possibility of high winds today, which combined with ice on trees could cause additional power outages to occur. The company has crews working on restoring power throughout the area, it said.