Houston storm aftermath: Latest on school closures and power outages

Now at six tens of thousands of students are out of class today. But parents say that more schools should be closed from ac issues to staffing problems straight ahead. Why H ID superintendent decided to open schools back up so soon, despite lingering issues from last week's storms and they can see like the insulation in the attic was on fire. Harris County deputy needs help after his family home caught fire while he was responding to calls for help. We've heard from dozens of frustrated Houstonians who were told their lights would be back on but they are still in the dark. We'll explain why that's happening at 615. Well, it's becoming more serious temperatures today. Climb to the nineties, but it's the, feels like, uh combined with the amount of moisture that's in the air. Feeling more in the low one hundreds Khou 11 morning news starts now. Good morning, Houston. Thanks for joining us. Bright and early on this beautiful Tuesday morning. Great to have you with us. I'm Stephanie Simmons here with Kimberly Davis, Jennifer, Rena and Cheetah Craft. Cheetah. We have a mix of issues. In my opinion. We do. We've got heat humidity and mosquitoes. You tell us, I know we've been feeling this, you know, we, we've had nineties in the past couple of weeks, but it's the humidity. So again, those future feels like temperatures, they become serious when we're talking feels like in the low 100. So again, the heat and the humidity combined, our heat indices today are in the low one hundreds. We are already starting off warm eighties. Not much recovery overnight, muggy, midday, 86 feels like more into the mid to low nineties. And then this afternoon, that's when we really see it peak the highest. So what you need to remember as we continue through the afternoon, it's the temperature combined with the dew point and that is what makes it feel so hot. That's why you need to take breaks. If you plan to spend any time outside, make sure you're staying hydrated, Jen. We're going over all of the heat related precautions. And that's just because I think some of our heat indices will be the highest that we've seen so far for the year. So if this was mid July, I'd have a different tone but this time of the year, this is extremely. Yeah, it seems like it's right at the front end here. So, yeah, long summer to come, for sure. Thanks Cheeta. Uh We are still encouraging you to avoid parts of downtown Houston, the exclusion zone between Louisiana and Travis. Things are cut off to vehicular traffic. Same for mckinney to Polk. We're asking, uh, even pedestrians to avoid the area as shards of glass still scattered about clean up is still in progress. Then also if you're traveling via car today, traffic lights out or malfunctioning, they're either flashing. So treat those as a four way stop. I saw a couple when I walked into work, uh, down West time or one car at a time, please and watch out for some debris on side streets still cleaning up the process. Right east beltway southbound, we still have a right lane block congestion almost I 10 speeds. Now as low as 21 MPH, you could use washburn tunnel or the 146 corridor to avoid the delays. And I'll leave you with this look of delay, free conditions right near the med center off of 288. All right, Jen. Thank you. Time. Now is 602 and just into our newsroom, Randall High School in Lamar CISD will be closed today. We're told there is no direct threat against the campus or any specific student. But the school has received information regarding a domestic violence concern that happened off campus over the weekend. They say this closure is out of an abundance of caution at this hour. Details are limited, but we are told there is an active investigation happening right now and we will of course update you as soon as we learn more this morning. It will be dangerous combination for those who are still without power, temperatures are expected to climb past 90 degrees and many people don't have air conditioning right now. And right now in Center point crews are working to restore that power. Now, more than 144 4000 Center Point customers are waking up in the dark and the power outages combined with damage has led to many schools being closed for a third day. Students of Cyfair Channel view Spring Branch and Galena Park, I SDS will not have class today. And 36 Houston ISD schools have also canceled classes today, but some think that number should be much higher right now. This was a wrong decision by Hisd. I mean, you have some kids that still don't have power. The school yeah, has power but there's no ac some of those schools ended up closing early yesterday because of those ac problems are goi loa joins us live this morning at one of those schools. So Ugochi will classes resume where you are today and Kimberly, we've been checking throughout the morning here at Reynolds Elementary School and they're not on the closed schools list today despite being closed early yesterday due to ac issues. However, Superintendent Mike Miles said they did check the school the night before the AC was working. However, that wasn't the case yesterday morning something we're hoping that won't be the case again today, but we'll be on the lookout for hoping to talk to students and staff once they get here to make sure it's good. So some parents expressed that H I opened its doors too soon after last week's deadly storms. Hisd superintendent Mike Miles says only two schools including Reynolds Elementary and Heights High School without ac and those students were sent home between air conditioning issues yesterday and not having staff at some schools. The president of the Houston Federation of Teachers says her phone was blowing up with complaints. However, Miles says part of the reason they opened schools was to help those who are less fortunate so they can restock up on food. We have kids who are at home with no power, no air conditioning. It's hot. So that's one of the reasons why we should not wait to open the school. If we can open the school opening up schools, sending people back to schools on a 90 degree day with no air. The storm didn't help our air conditioning situation. He's referring to how old some of the ac units are at some of the schools. Now. Superintendent Miles says despite issues, they were able to have two, able to open 214 schools yesterday and he says the district hopes to have more up and running by tomorrow reporting live in Southeast Houston, Ugochi, Iloka 11 news. All right. Thank you for that update. One of the many schools right now affected time now is 606 as we take a live look at center points interactive map showing when the power is expected to come back on. But right now, most of Timber Grove is still waking up in the dark. No, no power in here, Reece was bad but this is crazy. It's 95 degrees. We're four days without power four days now turning into five days without power for residents there after the storms knocked over trees that fell onto power lines in that neighborhood. Now crew are there trying to remove all of the debris from those lines. And according to Center point, Timber Grove was one of the hardest hit areas. But according to this map here, the light should be back on in that neighborhood sometime today. You can see where the kitchen was. They had just finished eating dinner, she washed them up not even 20 minutes before it all happened. A Harris County deputy was out saving lives during Thursday's storms when a tree came crashing into his family's kitchen sparking a fire that destroyed their home. His wife and three Children made it out of their home safely, but the family has lost everything. Deputy Augustine Arellano says his family barely had enough time to escape those flames. Now, the first Responders Children's Foundation is stepping in to help this family get back up on their feet. Deputy Arellano hopes other families will reach out as well for help. We have a link to that family's gofundme on our website time. Now, 607 city trash collectors are also making their rounds right now to collect storm debris. Remember, you have to sort debris correctly in order for it to be picked up, that includes separating your items into these categories. Garbage, vegetation, construction, and demolition appliances, electronics and household, hazardous waste. You're supposed to have debris on the curb right now. But hey, look at this. If, if your neighbor's pile is still there, maybe you can sneak yours out a little later too. And as we continue to cover the aftermath of the storm, Kou 11 is asking you to help us stand for Houston by donating to the Red Cross. The agency is helping people recover from the recent storm and also from the flooding that happened two weeks ago to make a donation, just point your phone's camera to the QR code you see on your screen. And of course, thank you in advance for any help you can give.