Prince George's County Public Schools will be closed Friday after severe weather swept across the Washington, D.C., region Thursday night, leaving a large number of schools and offices without power. The shutdown comes after storms brought down trees and power lines and caused widespread damage and outages across the area.
The district's closure lands as tens of thousands of people were left without power across D.C., Maryland and northern Virginia, a scale of disruption that made Friday a cleanup day as much as a school day. For families and staff, the immediate change is simple: classes are off, and the district is trying to hold together basic operations while the lights remain out in parts of the system.
The district is operating under Code Green, which means 12-month employees should report on time even as they remain eligible for liberal leave. That creates the clearest sign of how uneven the storm damage is inside the system: the schools are closed, but the work of keeping the district moving does not stop for everyone.
The unanswered question is how fast restoration can catch up. Downed trees and power lines are slowing the effort to bring service back, and the district has not said when power will be restored or when schools will reopen. Until that changes, Friday is not just a closure; it is a pause forced by damage the district cannot work around yet.
