HISD

HISD, This may mean nothing more, but in this case, the experts seem fairly confident. If the forecast holds peak hours, the evening will be bad, but tomorrow’s rush hour will be worse. Unless, of course, schools and businesses decide it’s best to keep their people at home. Seeing how the weather forecasters say we’ll all wake up to a winter landscape, which may be what is happening. We will keep you updated on school closings and other cancellations. HISD has announced no future classes, for example. (No decision yet on whether to have early dismissal today.)

Belinda Crimmins was in the downward dog pose in yoga class at Westside Tennis Club, on Wednesday morning when the lights went out.

Crimmins said the windowless studio was plunged into complete darkness.

“I literally could not see two feet in front of me,” said the professor of 42 years of heights. “I could not find my shoes. I could not find my towel. We have all kinds of crawling out of there.”

Residents of the Houston area who dutifully covered plants and pipes wrapped in advance of freezing weather, this week found themselves facing blind rolling blackouts that turned off the traffic lights and unstable daily in restaurants, offices, schools and houses on Wednesday.

The blackout even took law enforcement and transportation ignore.

CenterPoint spokesman Floyd LeBlanc said the company discovered Wednesday morning that he had outside contact for days for some essential community services – such as the Houston Independent School District, Houston Police Department and the City Houston – if the officials could not have been notified as early as possible.

“It seems there have been recent retirements, though some specific contacts e-mails have changed,” LeBlanc said, without specifying the agencies involved. “This list will improve in the Future. ”

Harris County Constable Precinct 4 stations lost power three times Wednesday morning for about 45 minutes starting from 05:30, said Chief Mark Herman.

Dispatchers had to return to writing calls on paper as they came because computers were not working, “said Herman.

The enclosure scrambled to set up a command post trailer powered by a generator to keep open the shipping center.

“We just play by ear, but we take every precaution we can to ensure that all emergency calls are handled in a timely manner,” said Herman.

The Houston Fire Department rescued 30 people trapped in elevators, on Wednesday, much more than the usual average of two or three on a normal day.

Most incidents occurred between 7 and 10 hours and are believed to have been caused by rolling blackouts, officials said HFD.

Sheriff’s deputies in Harris County were busy dealing with road traffic accidents at intersections where fire had gone out, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Christina Garza.

Wednesday afternoon, members responded to 79 minor accidents and nine major accidents.

“In general this is the case whenever there is heavy rain, or in this case, power outages,” said Garza.

“If conditions continue to deteriorate – an example of ice on the roads – we simply ask people to slow down and look at all the intersections four-way stops,” she said. “And if they do not need to be there, just to stay home in their cozy, comfortable beds. ”

At Hobby Airport, four partial failures temporarily shaded parts of the terminal, but did not interfere with safety or prevent theft of taking off and landing, “said Marlene McClinton, Houston Airport System spokesman.

“In the beginning, we lost the power of the tower and some of the runway lights, but everything comes back up generator,” said McClinton. “This is not a safety issue.”

Thousands of local schoolchildren face dark, cold classrooms as power outages swept their campuses. Most schools in the Houston area remained open, but the Spring Independent School District dismissed students after three hours, saying there was a need to conserve energy.

About 30 of the 300 campuses in Houston ISD lost power during a certain period of time – with a handful to a couple of hours. Students in a school, Kashmere High, were bused to another campus nearby. As plans to move other children were in the works, the lights and heat back slowly warms buildings.

HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said the district would have appreciated a heads-up electricity companies.

“It was a difficult decision for us,” Spencer said. “If you send students home, you do not know what are the conditions that you send them home to. If the power of their school, chances are the power at home, too. ”

Some students decided not to hold on. Houston mom Kristy Martin said his 16-year-old son sent him a text message from Yates High School around 11:50; she picked him up and took him home to his grandmother.

“It is just recovering from being sick,” Martin said. “His first day back, and he had to stay outside in the cold and sitting in school in the cold.”

Resource: usspot

Katy ISD

district level,” said head coach Jason Mauss Memorial. “We have between 16-18 children who have a chance to attend the regional meeting. It will be harder with the schools in Katy ISD and Strake Jesuit, but we expect to do well at the meeting.”

Memorial has twice this month by taking the Stratford on January 8 and Cinco Ranch a week later, but the Mustangs did not face another team in two weeks. The layoffs are not a concern for Mauss.

“He will not play a factor on how we are doing at the district level,” Mauss said the two-week break. “We needed to be rested and healthy, then we planned two weeks of leave for this reason. The kids had a break. Regardless, we expect children to advance to the regional level. ”

For years, Memorial has used the district meet to prepare for the regional meeting. This year, the district come together should be more competitive.

Katy ISD schools have been teams who normally saw the Mustangs to regional competition.

The storm is unusual in that extremely cold weather preceded the snow and ice, rather than arriving at the same time. This resulted in freezing temperatures a significant lead in two days undermining the latent heat of roads and bridges.

Forecasters with the Houston / Galveston office of the National Weather Service said snow showers could begin this morning along the coast. But they do not expect the main event to begin until this afternoon or, more likely, sunset.

There may be snow and ice to the east and south of Houston, with the north of the snow is more likely and west of downtown. Accumulations of 1 to 3 inches of snow and sleet are expected for most of Harris County.

If the system develops as planned, road hazards will be higher tonight through Friday noon, when temperatures could raise for several hours just enough to melt ice or snow on the roads.

The sudden freeze that saw temperatures drop 50 degrees on two days could be worse today as snow and ice are expected to activate the shuttle tonight traitors.

Crews planned to spray in Houston second and third layers of anti-ice solution on highway overpasses and bridges, while trucks loaded with mixtures of rock and sand were ready to go when the snow makes driving risky conditions late in the day. City employees were prepared to use preventive measures like the roads are vulnerable.

The message for residents: If it’s snowing, stay home.

“Firstly, if you do not have to be on the road Friday at all, the best option is to not…” said Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management, which established a command center Wednesday to coordinate responses to problems caused by weather.

Temperatures will be low in the 20s in a row tonight Katy Conroe. There is a potential for ice in eastern Harris County and perhaps as much as 4 inches of snow in the Piney Woods.

The region is likely to see more freezing Friday night before temperatures moderate finally Saturday.

Harris County has changed its level of emergency response readiness improved “and brought together members of various state and local agencies in the Texas Department of Transportation office in Houston to coordinate the response to the storm.

TxDOT trucks sprayed liquid magnesium chloride on highway overpasses and bridges, while the Harris County Toll Road Authority has done the same. Officials have focused on the heights, because they are exposed to more wind, which makes them more likely to freeze.

“We do what we can, but still enough snow or ice or sleet can make a dangerous road, so hopefully people will stay home,” said Chief Deputy Randy Johnson, the toll road authority.

Parker said the mayor Annise public works and road crews Engineering Department would be redirected to the laying of asphalt work defrost the freeze continues. At a news conference Wednesday, she reminds residents to take care of the “four P’s: People, animals, plants and pipes “” If you do not remember those last night, your plants are probably dead and you might have some problems with the pipes when they thaw, “said Parker.

The gel was already in trouble for residents on Wednesday morning.

A rising demand for power has attracted a state order for power outages. Frozen pipes and hose bibs burst invited 65 calls a plumbing company in north Harris County by 10 hours 30 others have also seen spikes in calls to the help plumbing left broke a few Houstonians without water. And plumbing problems were expected to spread.

The owners of overgrown plants outdoors in the city to save it from the low temperature. Native plants in Buchanan, workers had moved from 60 percent inventory of the company in a greenhouse that was maintained at 65 degrees to ensure the plant could remain in good enough shape to be sold.

At the Houston Zoo, the animals were barely visible to visitors Wednesday, as some had withdrawn most of the heated enclosure at the rear of their exhibitions, spokesman Brian Hill said.

Resource: usspot