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
