9 Houston ISD school without water after water main break Friday, including residents, businesses
HOUSTON - A number of Houstonians in Southeast Houston have been without water nearly all day but several schools are also affected.
Nine HISD schools were without water late this morning and afternoon thanks to a water main break.
Turns out, a fire hydrant in a neighborhood between Griggs and Woodridge was the culprit.
"I woke up this morning with water floating all over the street and so at 6 o’clock in the morning I called 311," explains resident Lorine Martin who first noticed and then warned her neighbors a utility pole looked like it would fall at any second. Then she realized the fire hydrant wasn’t only underwater, "We couldn’t see it. You barely could see the head of it," Martin explains, and she says the hydrant also appeared to be being swallowed by the ground.
"This is my first time I’ve ever seen something like that," says Martin, and in this case what happens on the corner of Keller and Flowers didn’t stay here.
A notification was sent out to families in the Milby High School and Chavez High School feeder patterns saying that some schools were impacted by the water main break in the neighborhood.
School officials say the city has not indicated when the water will be restored, so they are taking precautions including bottled drinking water, portable restrooms, and bag lunches delivered to impacted campuses.
A number of parents picked up their kids early.
"It’s not appropriate for school, very unsanitary," says Nabi who’s a Milby High School Senior.
"I think the parents are worried about the restroom. They (kids) all have needs, teachers have needs. They need to eat. They need to wash their hands and I work at McDonald’s on Woodridge. There’s no water. Everything is closed over there," explains Sonia who was picking up a friend’s daughter from school early because of the water outage.
"All my neighbors, HEB, Home Depot’s out of water, and we’ve got a roommate that works on Lawndale, and she’s without water and that’s a washeteria," Martin adds.
Officials say extra HISD Facilities and Operations staff were in the schools to monitor and manage issues as they arise.
School officials say students are safe, and the instructional day is continuing normally. There were no plans to dismiss campuses early, the notification said.
The City of Houston Public Works released this statement:
"Houston Public Works isolated the leak and is making repairs. We are working to reduce the area affected by the water outage. The leak was caused by a damaged fire hydrant at 6622 Keller St. As of noon, the estimated repair time was 4 to 6 hours."
City crews worked to repair the water main break for hours. The City of Houston says service was restored to the high schools by 1:15 p.m.
Water is expected to be restored to residents by 10 p.m.
Houston Public Works is going to begin giving bottled water to residents at 6:00 p.m.