Portable AC units installed at Malibu High after weekend blackout Play

Portable air conditioners were brought into the classrooms at Malibu High and Malibu Middle Schools this week. The buildings cooked all weekend after a power outage hit the campus Saturday, and nobody noticed until Monday.

Some sort of power surge from Southern California Edison apparently tripped the circuit breakers Saturday morning, and the two-school campus was blacked out all weekend in record-breaking heat.

Principal Adam Almeida said the high school experienced a power surge that knocked out power to the high school building. By the time staff came in Monday, the rooms were warm.

He said the district has been supportive and provided portable AC units for all classrooms, with some rooms getting two units based on size. Upstairs, windows are being used to vent hot air outside. Downstairs, where there are no windows, doors are propped open so heat can escape from the classrooms.

The heat was reportedly worse next door at Malibu Middle School. The campus does have generators that could have brought the air conditioners back online Saturday, but they are not automatic — not yet.

The district has just approved a $7 million contract to install solar panels and batteries that should take care of power for the schools if there's a problem with SCE.

But as anyone with generators or their own microgrid knows, power surges can always be a problem, and backup power is not a set-and-forget matter.