RANGELEY – A fallen tree on a power line in Roxbury left much of northern Franklin County and parts of Oxford County without power Monday morning.

And K-12 students in Rangeley who were left in the dark got sent home from school early.

According to Gail Rice, spokeswoman from Central Maine Power Co., the outage was first reported just before 7:30 a.m. on Monday.

At that time, a tree that had fallen on a line in Roxbury left 4,100 customers in Rangeley, Rumford, Dallas Plantation, Sandy River Plantation, Roxbury and Coplin Plantation, as well as several other smaller townships without electricity, Rice said.

By 8:42 a.m., 970 customers had their lights back on and by 9:12 a.m., power came back for around 2,800 others.

“It came back in pieces,” Rice explained, adding that the line that was hit by the downed tree was a “larger line serving more customers.”

Meanwhile in the Rangeley region, the town lay quiet and dark as many businesses amended their hours due to the blackout.

Buses were already on the road when the lights flickered off and students arrived at a powerless Rangeley Lakes Regional School. Emergency lights and sunlight streaming through the windows kept school in session for several periods, however, the school began releasing students to inquiring parents around 9 a.m. and recalling buses.

Every student’s parent was contacted, said Superintendent Kenneth Coville and made aware that students were heading home. “We don’t like to send kids home to empty houses,” he said. “By car, bus or being picked up, everyone got home.” The school was cleared out by 11 a.m. “It went as well as can be expected,” Coville added.

Later this week, the superintendent will contact the state’s commissioner of education to see if the day will have to be made up, he said.

SAD 43, also briefly hit by the outage, did not have to close school.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com