Houston cancels school again due to boil water advisory
Houston’s public school system will be closed again on Tuesday following a power outage at a water treatment plant on Sunday who forced the whole town to boil the water before they could use it. Water officials had expressed hope that boiling the water advisory for the city’s 2.3 million residents would be lifted early Tuesday, but that has yet to happen.
The power outage at the East water purification plant early on Sunday occurred when a transformer broke down, according to the local TV station ABC 13. The emergency transformer and the emergency generator did not start, for an unknown reason.
“We know that both transformers malfunctioned. One was a backup of the other. It was just one of those unique circumstances where you have these transformers malfunctioning and then you have the backup malfunctioning,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told ABC 13.
The City of Houston has a $56 million contract with NRG Energy Services for backup power to the East Water Purification Plant, but it’s unclear why the backup power didn’t started. NRG did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday.
According to the wall street journal. Fourteen of the power plant’s 16 sensors dipped below “emergency” levels for about two minutes, while the remaining two sensors dipped below “emergency” levels for 30 minutes, according to the Log.
Loss of water pressure in a water treatment facility can allow pipes to reverse, potentially letting in contaminated water, though city water officials still believe this does not did not occur in this case. But proper testing can take 18 hours, forcing the whole town to boil water just to be safe.
“Due to the boil water advisory issued by the City of Houston on Sunday evening, all ISD Houston campuses and facilities will be closed on Tuesday, November 29,” the school district said. in a tweet.
“This decision was made due to logistical challenges caused by the advisory. These challenges prevent the district from being able to provide meals to its students and ensure clean water is available for students and staff. the school district continued.
“All HISD employees will work remotely, unless instructed otherwise by their line of business leader. Although students are not on campus, we encourage them to use digital academic resources that are available 24/7.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott released a statement on Sunday saying he was directing state resources to Houston, but said three power plants had actually lost power. It’s not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy between the governor’s announcement and the city’s.
Click for more photos of Houston during the boil water advisory.
