There will be an emergency meeting of the Salem Community School’s Board of Trustees this afternoon at 5p at the Salem Middle School.
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the repairs and clean up of the middle school after Friday night’s flooding.
Officials have also closed the school for at least this Monday. The affects Grades 6, 7 and 8.
Flood waters swelled from nearby Brock Creek and flooded and damaged the nearby girls’ softball field and also water streaming across a nearby field flooded the basement level of the school.
So much so that water was escaping through cracks around basement windows and external air vents.
School Board President Mark Abbott said the school’s bus compound was flooded from Brock Creek.
“We were lucky to get the buses out,” said Abbott. “We got most of those out. Joe England and staff got right on that.”
Flooding also damaged or destroyed most of the school’s sports areas.
“Looks like we lost the soccer field, the football practice field, definitely the [girls’] softball field. Who knows what else…things are damaged down by the baseball field.”
Salem Middle School Principal Ray Oppel said this was the worst flooding he’s seen at the school since he’s been there.
“So far we’ve looked in the basement and it’s completely flooded,” Oppel noted. “Probably 15 feet of water. The retaining wall to the North by the new gym — it took that out and washed tons of gravel down into the parking lot. I think the water came so fast and so quickly, there was no way our drains could take it.”
Oppel pointed to the East — “You can see the softball field. Probably the worse I’ve seen it since I’ve been here. Back in 09, we had some flooding that took out the softball field…but nothing like this.”
“The basement will be completely wiped out. Everything down there will be completely destroyed,” said Oppel.
The meeting is open to the public.
