High wind gusts Monday knocked out power to 10,000 homes on Whidbey Island, including all of Coupeville.

Approximately 1,600 homes in Coupeville lost power Monday afternoon. The impacted area included the only lighted intersection and the Coupeville schools.

A spokesman for Puget Sound Energy said the high winds blew steadily at 37 mph and gusts reached 61 mph.

Coupeville School District Superintendent Bill Myhr said the power outage occurred at 2:15 p.m., which is 15 minutes before the secondary schools finish classes for the day.

The middle school students were in the gym at the time watching an eighth-grade basketball game.

“It was a lot of fun when power went out with a gym full of middle schoolers,” Myhr said. Fortunately the emergency lights came on and the students were escorted back to their classrooms until school was dismissed at its normal time.

Lessons continued at the elementary school.

“The teachers didn’t miss a beat,” Myhr said. He toured the classes at the elementary school. He said that every class except one had enough light from windows for teachers to continue with their lesson plans. The one teacher who didn’t have enough light used a flashlight to read to the class.

Myhr said it was fortunate the power outage occurred late in the school day, because once school starts, staff have to complete the day.

“Once we have them, we have to keep them for the rest of the day,” Myhr said.

With the power outage, motorists approaching the intersection at Highway 20 and Main Street had to treat it like a four-way stop.

Officers from the Coupeville Marshal’s Office were at the intersection last night pulling motorists over for not stopping at the intersection. The State Patrol also kept a close eye on the intersection.

Town Marshall Lenny Marlborough said officers pulled over around 50 people Monday. They weren’t ticketed rather just told to treat any intersection as a four-way stop when the stoplight is out.

He said some drivers don’t realize the intersection is dark until it’s too late.

“By the time people realize there is something wrong with the light, they are through the intersection,” Marlborough said.

He said staff is working on options to make the intersection more visible during power outages.

A similar power outage in November caused a Langley man to blow through the intersection and collide with a car with three children inside.

Power was restored to the area between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., according to the spokesman for PSE.