WESTOVER — Due to a strong odor of gas in the Princess Anne area, students at Princess Anne and Greenwood elementary schools were evacuated Thursday morning (Dec. 4) and transported to Washington High School “as a precautionary measure.”

The announcement was made before 9:30 a.m. from the Board of Education to parents through the Connect Ed phone alert system.

Parents were directed to go to WHS if desired with appropriate ID to pick-up their student but that was not necessary. “The students are perfectly safe at WHS” according to the report, and were returned to their elementary school around two hours later once it was deemed safe.

There was no leak identified but the Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Company which was first alerted to the U.S. 13 and Mt. Vernon Road area, instead a cloud of gas released during a tank cleaning in Salisbury is thought to have drifted south before dissipating.