On Tuesday, Oct. 30, Beachwood used its first calamity day due to Super-Storm Sandy.

Through an electronic notification system, Superintendent Dr. Richard Markwardt contacted students, parents and teachers Monday night and told them school would be cancelled for the next day.

The majority of school districts in the region were also closed.

“Our day off was indeed counted as a snow day, but they are now known as calamity days,” said Principal Edward Klein.

According to Klein, Beachwood has at least five calamity days for the year, depending on state mandates.

“Dr. Markwardt closed the school because of the potential power outages [in school buildings] and the power outages all across of Beachwood,” Klein said.

Many homes in Beachwood lost power during the storm, but power has since been restored.

“[BHS] has two big backup generators. We weren’t running at full capacity like we normally do, but we had power,” said Klein

The hurricane really did not have an effect on the construction.

“The construction workers were still here and working. [Assistant Principal] Paul Chase, Ryan Peters and myself came up and met with them. We looked around to see if anything was wrong and found a leak over by the new Channel 22 room,” said Klein

The storm did have an effect on the classrooms as well. Puddles of water were found in the new and unfinished parts of the building.

“[Near] Mr.Chase’s new office there was a big puddle of water caused by the hurricane during the ‘snow day,’” Klein said.

“The Superintendents indeed do talk to each other about school closings, [in cases of] snow days and rain days and sometimes … wind days. In Euclid, our Superintendent closed school because of strong winds and that was also counted as a calamity day,” said Klein.

Many students enjoyed the unexpected day off.

“I loved my “snow day.” It was really a day off because I got to sleep in, catch up on my homework, and hang with some of my friends. I can’t wait for the next one,” said junior Monique Crosby

“I really liked my “snow day” because it just gave me a reason to sleep, and it helped me get some community service hours by helping people who didn’t have any power,” said sophomore Tyler Devon Thomas