Amid concerns of flooding resulting in road and bridge closures, administration issued a delayed start for all campuses May 6. The floods were the result of heavy rainfall (in excess of three to four inches) from storms that rolled through central Texas from May 2 through May 5.
“The flooding definitely messed with some of our work schedules,” freshman Ethan Murphy said. “I had a bunch of projects that I needed to do that day but couldn’t because of missing classmates. It was just as bad over the weekend with all the storms coming through and taking out power and internet connections for everyone.”
The flooding also caused interruptions at prom, resulting in students becoming stranded in heavily waterlogged areas or failing to appear entirely.
“It really is an unfortunate situation all-around,” world history teacher Shea Moyer said. “Prom is an experience you don’t really get to repeat, and those unlucky enough to have been out when the flash flooding hit are going to have that experience ingrained in their memories of prom night now.”
Bridges in and out of Lampasas and surrounding areas were closed due to roadways becoming flooded, causing issues with traffic and cutting off towns entirely in some cases. With back-to-back storms and associated severe weather outbreaks, the flooding in lowland and riverside areas continued to compound through Sunday night in some regions.
“I was trying to work on a project the weekend the storms hit,” sophomore Weldon Nesbitt said. “They knocked out the power and the internet for a while and left it pretty spotty for the next day or so, so I couldn’t even turn in the project or get to school on Monday since they closed the only way into town from my house.”
The resulting two-hour delayed start issued by administration pushed classes back to start at 10:00 a.m. Happening so close to the end of the year, this could introduce additional issues with class time to study or complete final projects and assignments.
“It does put a lot of additional stress on the students and ourselves as teachers,” Moyer said. “We’re already in that last week of the year where everyone is trying to cram in their last grades, and now we have students who can’t complete their work, meaning we have to extend deadlines or adjust grades for the people who were particularly impacted by the flooding or the storms. The schedule the school follows is flawed in general, it makes people wake up earlier than they’re probably used to and forces us to cram things into a pretty small window in the event things like this happen.”
Heavier localized flooding will continue to clear as the heaviest of the storms pass, though lighter rain and thunderstorms will continue over the next two weeks.
“It’s just a rough situation to have to deal with,” Nesbitt said. “Even with the delayed start [the administration] did, some of us had to deal with stuff and still couldn’t come to school. It just sucks that it had to happen so close to the end of the year when we already have a ton of work piled onto us.”
