Shallowater ISD was cleaning up an estimated $80,000 – $90,000 in water damage Thursday leftover from this week’s rain. The Shallowater Elementary School’s basement has now experienced two major floods this year.
The school district has also been working to fix leaks and dry up moisture in the building
“Rains make it tough to do work we want to do” said Greg Couch who works in operations for Shallowater ISD.
The basement first flooded with the heavy rains in late May. Then when the school district had cleaned up from the May flooding, weather struck again.
“With the first rain you kind of felt helpless because water was running down the wall, and we were sucking up the water as quickly as we could,” Border said.
“It rained again this last Monday evening. Then the other half of our basement flooded, the part that wasn’t flooded before,” said Kenny Border, Shallowater Independent School District Superintendent . ” When we walked in, you had about two and a half inches of water on the other end, so we had quite a bit of water in the basement.”
When asked if the basement would be ready in time for the start of the school year on August 24, Border said, “Maybe.”
He added, “We have made contingency plans just in case the basement is not ready when school starts.”
The district is working with consultants to make sure the school buildings are safe for use this upcoming fall.
“We just want to make sure the air quality is where it needs to be to make sure our kids are safe and our teachers are safe,” Border said.
The school district will be filing an insurance claim for the damages, which according to Border’s memory, is one of only two times in the last decade the school district has had to do so.
Currently around 400 students attend the elementary school which enrolls Pre-K through 1st grade students. They use the basement for activity classes such as music and art.
