Lone Star College-University Park campus evacuated after possible gas leak

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Students and faculty at Lone Star College-University Park were asked to evacuate the campus after a possible gas leak Wednesday evening.

The order was lifted by officials just after 9:30pm.

What caused the evacuation? A gas stove was left on in the cafeteria area of Building 13, according to officials.

The college, located at SH 249 and Louetta Road, sent out a mass message asking everyone to evacuate. The message worked as advertised, except it was sent to students that attended other universities across the country.

The first alert read, "Attention. There is an emergency on campus. Calmly evacuate all buildings using available exits."

Notice, the vague message didn't give critical details to where or what was happening. The message snafu forced other universities to send out their own tweets, informing students not to be alarmed.

"For some reason when we sent out the message, the message reverted back to its default can-state, which is just a general alert to evacuate the campus instead of specifically alerting on a specific campus," Lone Star's police chief said. "So we will have to investigate why that occurred, speak with the vendor tomorrow."