Houston boil water notice steams residents, shutters businesses

A boil water notice issued late Sunday closed Houston schools and businesses, leaving residents frustrated with the city’s communication and scrambling on Monday to adjust their post-Thanksgiving plans. That scramble will continue for another day: Word came Monday afternoon that the Houston Independent School District would be closed for a second day on Tuesday. The city issued the boil order after a power failure at the East Water Purification Plant caused the water pressure in the city to dip below the level required to meet safety standards Sunday morning. City officials have said they believe the water was and continues to be safe, but they were required to notify the public about the pressure drop. As of Monday afternoon, no hospitals had reports of patients with symptoms that might have come from contaminated water.

“A decision was made out of an abundance of caution to issue the boil water notice,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner at a press conference Monday morning. By Sunday night, people were already buying water in bulk. “It's probably all precautionary, I get it,” said John Beezley, who was buying water at a Walmart. He and his wife were in Houston for her treatments at MD Anderson Cancer Center. “We wanted to stock up now, because once it's gone, it's gone.” Families with students in HISD were forced to adjust work plans, too. “Between the Astros Parade cancellation, the week off for Fall Break, and this, it hardly seems possible for parents to get any work done in this city,” said Cameron Buckner, a parent in HISD. Many people around the city were alarmed to learn how long officials had waited to let people know about the incident. Although monitoring sites across the city reported low pressure at 11 a.m. on Sunday, city officials did not issue a boil water notice until after 6 p.m. The first notice was sent at 6:44 p.m. via email. The city tweeted the alert at 7:27 p.m. and sent texts to subscribers of AlertHouston around 10:30 p.m.