Houston ISD issues shelter-in-place, Houston-area school districts close due to Imelda

A flooded out car is stranded in high water off U.S. 59 as rain from Tropical Depression Imelda inundates the area on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019, near Spendora. A flooded out car is stranded in high water off U.S. 59 as rain from Tropical Depression Imelda inundates the area on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019, near Spendora. Photo: Brett Coomer/Staff Photographer Photo: Brett Coomer/Staff Photographer Image 1 of / 105 Caption Close Houston ISD issues shelter-in-place, Houston-area school districts close due to Imelda 1 / 105 Back to Gallery

School districts across the Greater Houston area canceled after-school activities, issued shelter-in-place orders and continued to grapple with transportation challenges Thursday afternoon as Tropical Depression Imelda drenched the region.

At least three local school districts — Dayton, New Caney and Splendora ISDs — already have canceled Friday classes, with more likely to make announcements in the coming hours.

ROAD HAZARDS: Here are the Houston-area locations reporting high water

Several drier districts issued notices to families that they could pick up children from school before dismissal, while a few districts said transportation would be delayed due to flooding.

In Houston ISD, district officials said at 2 p.m. that all buses will continue to operate under normal time schedules, though some routes could be delayed. About 20,000 of the district's 208,000 students ride buses each day.

On the northern end of HISD, at least two schools -- Booker T. Washington High and Durham Elementary -- experienced flooding outside or inside classrooms.

Stephany Campos, a 17-year-old senior at Booker T. Washington High located in Independence Heights, said she saw flood waters begin seeping through doorways into parts of the school's hallways around 11 a.m.

By 1 p.m., most of the hallways on the first floor were covered in water. The cafeteria was also flooded, so food workers brought chicken sandwiches to individual classrooms. By 2, she and the four other students in her pre-calculus class were ushered into another classroom downstairs with an English class.

"I'm worried because I'm not sure what's going on at home, I'm worried about my mom," Campos said. "She can't pick me up because she can't drive. Most my friends can't get home either."

A video circulating on Facebook showed children at Durham walking across benches to avoid minor flooding outside the open-air campus. However, Durham parent Megan Rasmussen said she received assurances from other parents that classrooms remained dry, describing her level of concern as "not very high."

While some educators and parents criticized HISD for not canceling classes, Rasmussen said she did not fault the district.

"Nobody realized it was going to happen like this in the afternoon," Rasmussen said. "I thought it would have been jumping the gun to cancel school."

After schools started classes, the National Weather Service reached out to school districts Thursday morning to advise them that the storms could bring more rain than originally forecast and that there was the possibility of "rapidly deteriorating weather conditions," according to a tweet from Friendswood ISD. Officials in that district asked parents and guardians to pick their children up from schools in the morning if they were able to navigate the roads.

In Aldine ISD, where pockets of the district experienced significant flooding, a shelter-in-place remained in effect through early Thursday afternoon. Mike Keeney, a spokesman for Aldine ISD, said students there would stay put until weather officials say it's safe for them to be released.

"We have plenty of supplies for our students, and we're recommending that parents wait until the rain subsides to come pick up their kids," Keeney said.

Districts across the region, including some in areas spared from extensive flooding, canceled after-school activities as a precaution. Those districts include Katy, Fort Bend, Spring and Tomball.

Several districts were closed Thursday to avoid any flooding-related challenges, including Conroe Humble, Galena Park and Galveston ISDs.

THURSDAY SCHOOL DISTRICT AND COLLEGES CLASSES CANCELED:

Conroe ISD

Humble ISD

New Caney ISD - also closed Friday, Sept. 20

Splendora ISD - also closed Friday, Sept. 20

Sheldon ISD

Crosby ISD

Dayton ISD - also closed Friday, Sept. 20

Galena Park ISD

Galveston ISD

Goodrich ISD

Liberty ISD

Sante Fe ISD

Mainland Prep Academy

Satori School Galveston

Texas City ISD

Lee College in Baytown

Lone Star College - all properties

UH main campus

UH Downtown

UH-Clear Lake

UH- Katy

UH-Sugar Land

San Jacinto College wil close at 4 p.m.

Varnett Public Schools - shelter-in-place issued, will dismiss at 1 p.m. when lifted

Texas A&M University-Galveston

Texas Southern University

University of St. Thomas

Rice University

PRIVATE SCHOOL CLASSES CANCELLED THURSDAY:

John Cooper School

The Woodlands Methodist School

Paddington British Private School

UTI Houston Campus will close at 12:45pm

Middle College at Felix Fraga (HISD) will release students at 3:30 p.pm

AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES CANCELLED:

Klein ISD

La Porte ISD

Liberty High School (HISD) evening classes

Spring ISD

Tomball ISD

Conroe ISD

Katy ISD

Please check back for updates.

Kara N. Quebedeaux and Brittany Britto contributed to this report.

Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | rebecca.hennes@chron.com