East Texas Crisis Center’s emergency shelter closes temporarily due to pipes bursting
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - It’s an emergency shelter for those needing help escaping an abusive situation, but tonight the East Texas Crisis Center’s emergency shelter is closed after pipes burst, causing significant water damage.
Crews spent Tuesday afternoon tearing out sheetrock and inspecting baseboards at the East Texas Crisis Center following two pipe bursts near Christmas time.
Executive Director East Texas Crisis Center, Lana Peacock, said the first pipe burst on December 23 at one end of the shelter.
“It flooded very quickly, it was a big bust, and it flooded very quickly, all the way up the hallway and really got each bedroom,” she said. “We moved them down to the other hallway into bedrooms that were empty.”
The next morning, another pipe burst in the area that they moved the families to. The flooding caused them to have to relocate the three families staying with them to other East Texas shelters and close down their emergency shelter.
“We don’t know for how long. I’m very hopeful that it’s maybe four weeks, but who knows. They’re tearing out a lot of the sheet rock and that has to be put back in and then textured and painted and that’s going to take a while. All the drying time between each of those steps, so I’m concerned,” Peacock said.
All the furniture that was in the bedrooms has been moved to the gymnasium. During the winter storm in 2021 their shelter also suffered major damage.
“My first reaction was, not again. But my second reaction is thank heaven it’s not as bad as it was a year and a half ago,” she said. “When we shut down, it shut down our whole facility and we were closed for four months. So now we’re looking at, hopefully, four weeks that we’d be able to open back up again.”
Peacock said January is a busy time for them and they are still able to operate daytime services and their 24/7 hotline, which is directing clients to other shelters for the time being.
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