Let's Be Careful Out There

Hale was closed today due to flooding and will remain closed until Wednesday.

Golden Gardens Drive is washed out and a slide swallowed a Subuaru.

Be extra careful out there!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Note - Nathan Hale will be closed until Thursday morning. Refer www.seattleschools.org for updates.
Anonymous said…
We live across the street from Hale. The flooding here is awful. The creek over flowed and has flooded many neighborhood homes, and the school. Parts of two roads leading to the school have been washed away.
Anonymous said…
What happens when they close a high school during the day? Do they just send the kids home via Metro? Is there any attempt made to contact parents? Was the water high when they released the kids? Were they ever in any danger?
Anonymous said…
My son is a sophomore at Hale. The students were sent home before the school started flooding - the street and creek were rising, and the second floor was experiencing a lot of water from the leaking roof. Parents were notified by e-mail and a phone tree. There is no "yellow bus" service other than special ed at Hale. Special ed buses took their children home, and the other children went home their normal way - Metro, bike, foot, etc. It sounded like staff stayed behind for a while, I suspect they needed to move items that could be damaged in a flood to safer areas.
Yes, and they are remodeling Hale on its same boggy spot so we can only hope it gets remodeling that avoids this problem.

FYI, there was this various back and forth about Hale's smokestack. Initially, it was "critical seismic" problem. Then it was going to be left standing. Now, it's going to partially come down. I checked the seismic reports and there are many schools with smokestacks that should either come down or be reduced because of seismic problems. Hale's is particularly problematic because it's on stilts built in a bog.
Anonymous said…
I'm sure that when taking on the million+ dollar job of remodeling a high school the district will have the proper surveys and consultations done to assure that the building, bog and all, will be sustainable. You have to give them a little credit Melissa, please. They will do it, if for no other reason than to protect their investment.

Regarding the Hale flooding closure...I too wondered what Hale did when they closed the building to make sure that their students got home safe? The creek came up over the banks, and two streets were closed immediately neighboring Hale, there was massive flooding in that area, and a huge sink hole a block away from the school. How did the school assure the students safety in such conditions? In addition, many Metro buses that the students take are "added service" that Metro has added specifically to accommodate the Hale students. That means that many of those buses wouldn't be running in the middle of the school day. In addition most of the buses that run on Lake City Way (popular route for NH HS kids) are express, work hour buses, that stop running at about 930A and don't start again until about 230 or 3P.
Charlie Mas said…
Anonymous wrote:
"I'm sure that when taking on the million+ dollar job of remodeling a high school the district will have the proper surveys and consultations done to assure that the building, bog and all, will be sustainable. You have to give them a little credit Melissa, please. They will do it, if for no other reason than to protect their investment."

We can presume that they will do these things, just like they did when they built the school in 1963 and when they did major construction work in '72 and 2005?
Anonymous said…
Are you guys just looking for something to be critical of the school for? They want students to be safe and gave students instructions. No student was forced out into the rain. Please give school staff some credit for caring about your kids.
Anonymous said…
Why, if we gave the district credit for during their jobs at least partly properly, most on this blog wouldn't know what to do with their days. What would be the use in living if not to peruse seismic reports and school board mtgs looking for something to complain about.
Anonymous said…
Students at Hale were notified during class by their teachers that the school would be closing at 11:00. They were asked to contact their parents before leaving at the end of the period and communicate that they would be going home. This was in addition to email alerts and phone tree messages to parents. Students who could not reach their parents to make necessary arrangements were asked to report to the Performing Arts Center.

As a former teacher, I am sadly disappointed in the lack of support for the teachers in SPS shown by many of the contributors to this blog.
Wow.

"What would be the use in living if not to peruse seismic reports and school board mtgs looking for something to complain about."

I have a post that I have been working on about seismic issues and the Facilities Master Plan for 2010. But hey, why bother if no one really cares about whether there kid is in a seismically challenged building? I know mine isn't so I guess I don't have to worry. (That would be my attitude if I wasn't an activist. But see, pouring over somewhat boring documents in search of the realities of building maintenance seems be mean something to me.)

It doesn't sound like people want to believe that there are far more buildings with major problems.
If you read those reports and saw the data on some of those schools (and your child was in one of those schools), your toes would curl. But really, what, me worry?
Charlie Mas said…
I don't know that I have seen a lack of support for teachers on this blog. Could the person who made the anonymous comment at 2:25 remind me of them?
Anonymous said…
Charlie, it looks like that major construction work in 63 (45 years ago), and 72 (35 years ago), has held up pretty well through major earth quakes, wind storms and now a flood. Even with that 35 and 45 year old construction that certainly didn't have the modern day earthquake technology!!!

Even that old smokestack with the stilts built into the bog must have been built mighty well, as it is still standing proud.

I am optimistic. I think the district will do its homework, especially, as I said, if for no other reason than to protect its investment.
Anonymous said…
Anonymous at 2:25 where is the lack of support for teachers and staff????? A few bloggers asked questions as to the safety of the children, how the closure was handled? Not one person said it was handled poorly, incorrectly or otherwise. They simply asked how it was handled?? Were the kids safe??

I think those are reasonable questions. I do not think they lack support for the teachers.

Thank you for answering the question. It sounds like Hale did a superb job of handling an emergency situation in a safe, orderly, appropriate manner.

No need to be so defensive.
Anonymous said…
Perhaps the comment about failure to respect teachers and staff in this blog..... makes reference to other threads in this blog over the last several months and is not just confined to this page.
Anonymous said…
Dan-

I have not seen a lack of respect towards teachers and staff. I've mostly seen a lot of people who don't respect you or your comments.

The comment above is a perfect example. Does that help the conversation at all? Maybe if you quoted or pointed to threads where there has been a failure to respect teachers people would take you more seriously. Instead, it feels as if you just want to make very general comments and offer nothing to back them up.

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