Power Restoration and Clean-Up Complications Affect School Districts and Neighborhoods [UPDATED]

Update Tuesday 9:26 a.m. According to Brent Taylor, chief communications officer of the Houston Office of Emergency Management, Houstonians should expect the area on Travis from McKinney to Polk, which was shut down so crews could clean up shattered glass and other debris, to remain closed through Wednesday.

Update 7:32 a.m. Two more HISD schools had to close Tuesday after their air conditioning failed Tuesday night: Marshall Middle School and Hamilton Middle School.

Original story:

Debris and downed power lines from last Thursday’s storm continued to clutter the Houston area roadways and prevent power restoration for many residents on Monday afternoon, leaving crews with more work in the coming days.

According to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, those hitting the four-day mark in the dark should expect their lights to turn on by Wednesday. If not, she advised residents to check in with an electrician as the source of the outage could be due to localized damage — not a systemwide problem.

CenterPoint Energy crews reported difficulties when attempting to restore power to the areas harder hit by the storm. These included neighborhoods closer to downtown Houston, such as parts of Bellaire and the Heights, and those further out, such as Spring Branch, Cypress and Baytown. In these locations, power restoration has also been unstable, with lights flickering on and off.

HISD Superintendent Mike Miles held a late afternoon press conference. “Today 214 schools were opened. And we got kids into the schools and fed.”

Problems with several air conditioners across Houston ISD campuses and one reported incident involving a gas odor at Lamar High School forced the district to implement early dismissals at the affected campuses on Monday. In addition to Lamar, Reynolds Elementary School and Heights High School also had daytime dismissals.

“Yes two schools had to close. They were up and running, the night before the air conditioning wasThe air conditioning was up and running but in the morning they started having problems and went down. Heights High School had to close and Reynolds Elementary had to close,” Miles said. “That was in the morning. We had another school that had to close but that was Lamar; we had a gas leak.”

The superintendent said some air conditioners went in and out so some classrooms “were a little warmer than we wanted them to be.

Crews and volunteers worked through the weekend to get their schools back in shape. Miles singled out Pugh Elementary where a large tree fell across a courtyard and into one classroom. He said if you went there Monday you wouldn’t know that had ever happened other than the stump left behind.

“We won’t have all the schools open tomorrow,” he said. His position hasn’t changed from when the freezing winter weather closed schools for a day in January about the importance of keeping schools open in times of power outages.

“We have kids who are at home with no power, no air conditioning and it’s hot so that’s one of the reasons we should not wait to open the schools if we can open the schools. That’s why we’re distributing food at the schools that are closed.”

“We monitor the temperature very carefully in all of our schools. We’re looking at temperatures to stay in the 70s.  Every day this month, and every day in August, you’re going to get calls and I’m going to get calls about air conditioning.”  He used the opportunity to stress the need to pass the bond issue that the Board of Managers is expected to call for.

He also went back to his mantra, that “We need to be urgent. We need to cultivate a culture of essentialness..”

The only school unlikely to reopen for the rest of the year is Sinclair Elementary which was hard hit by the storm and whose students may have to be transported to other schools , he said. “The footnote to that is if we have a school whose power cannot come on Monday or Tuesday of next week, we’re going to have to do something with those schools.”

These HISD schools are scheduled to be closed Tuesday:

HISD advised that ” If your student’s campus is closed tomorrow, staff will be on hand at the school to distribute light meals to students between 7 and 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Campuses will also provide learning packets for students to complete at home if they are able.”

Spring Branch ISD

Spring Branch ISD announced that the district would be closed on Tuesday. As of Monday afternoon, one-third of the campuses did not have power, and many parents, students and staff remained in the dark at their residences.

Spring Branch officials added that they would send an update to community members about Wednesday’s school day by Tuesday at 4 p.m. The administration noted that final exams would take place once students were back in classrooms.

Test scores that negatively affect Spring Branch students’ grades will not be recorded, a decision made because many students lack access to the internet or the ability to access the materials to prepare for their exams.

City and county officials said Monday that there are eight confirmed deaths as a result of Thursday’s storms, and Hidalgo said there has been an uptick in carbon monoxide poisoning calls and injuries related to recovery efforts.