Lending a helping hand
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Oct. 14—Community pulls together during water main break
Tuesday morning did not start as normal for students, staff and parents at Samuel Walker Houston Elementary on 7th Street. A water main had burst near the school and was spraying water into the air, meaning water to the area was shut off as city crews worked to fix the issue.
Huntsville ISD school officials jumped into action, coordinating the transfer of school operations to Northside Baptist Church, at 1207 FM 980, until the water issues could be resolved.
According to social media posts, the entire campus of Samuel W. Houston Elementary was evacuated around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, following breakfast service, all students and staff were relocated.
The school day continued at the relocation site, including student instruction and lunch service. Officials said everyone relocated would transported back to the campus at the end of the school day for regular dismissal.
School officials emphasized there was no need to come and pick up students early, as they were safe and busy engaged in learning activities.
Around 1:15 p.m., water service had been restored to the campus and all students and staff were transported back to campus.
Officials expressed their gratitude to Northside Baptist Church for opening their doors in a time of need. They also thanked parents and guardians for their your patience and understanding. HISD Staff worked at the church following the transfer back to campus to return the Church premises back to the way it was upon arrival — cleaning, sanitizing and returning furniture back to its place.
"Talk about feeling gratitude," said the post to social media. "Thank you to Pastor Reagan Cooksey, Associate Pastor Bob Slie, and the entire Northside family for opening your doors and saving the day for us, and our kids."
Huntsville ISD's mass emergency notification system was experiencing an outage as well at the time of the crisis, making individual notification impossible. Officials are reviewing the issues and working to resolve it quickly.
