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A break in a water line closes two Austin area schools
Cedar Creek High School and Bluebonnet Elementary were closed Thursday due to a break in a nearby waterline.
AUSTIN, Texas - A break in a water utility line has temporarily closed two schools in the Austin area.
Notifications were sent to the parents of Cedar Creek High School and Bluebonnet Elementary on Thursday, alerting them the schools were closed for the day.
“My mom came into my room and told me that I wasn’t going to school because the pipeline is busted and then I went on social media and I had a check to see what was going on and I got the text,” said Cedar Creek HS student Ella Turner.
Another student, Sky Smith, missed the notification and was surprised at school by her assistant principal.
“We are walking, to go into class and she came out running, like don’t come inside because school is closed,” said Smith.
The Cedar Creek soccer team was already on the practice field when the alert went out. Team member Leo Alejo says their coach got a call about the closure.
“He told us, all of us, that school was canceled,” said Alejo who added the coach didn’t give him any options on how to get back home. Leo and teammate Alexis Tinajero were able to contact a friend who’s father gave them a ride home.
The job at Bluebonnet Elementary required a little more coordination.
A Spokesperson for Bastrop ISD said students who arrived early were fed breakfast. Some were picked up by their parents, while others were sent home around mid-morning on a school bus.
The elementary and the high school have a combined enrollment of 2600 students.
The break took place behind a Hwy 71 car dealership, near a water tank operated by Aqua Water Supply.
Officials with the utility say the break involved a 24-inch pipe which apparently broke due to stress and age. Not far away, along Union Chapel Road, crews with Aqua Water Supply put in a bypass line. That work kept the water flowing throughout the service area, including the schools.
A spokesperson with Bastrop ISD told FOX 7 that decision to close the schools was a precautionary measure. Ashely Woodward, who picked up her niece, questioned that decision.
The water utility is asking people in the Cedar Creek service area to conserve water until midday Friday.