Schools spared worst of flooding; Hundred athletic complex damaged

WETZEL COUNTY, W.Va. — In less than three weeks, the new school year opens in Wetzel County in the aftermath of flooding that’s devastated entire communities, including Hundred, and turned one high school into an emergency shelter and supply distribution point.

The schools in Wetzel County missed the storms’ worst, according to Shane Highley, assistant superintendent in Wetzel County.

“We were very blessed at Hundred, with everything else that happened there, the high school was spared,” Highley told MetroNews on Tuesday.

In Marion County, Superintendent Gary Price was similarly grateful for the state of Marion County’s schools. “We escaped it with not too much damage considering the extent of the flood,” he said Tuesday.

For the immediate future, Hundred High School — which opened as an emergency shelter as floodwaters rose — will continue to serve as a shelter, supply distribution point and volunteer coordination center.

In Marion County, the American Red Cross was moving out of North Marion High School on Tuesday morning, but volunteers, including high school staff and students, were continuing to staff the facility as a supply point.

Teachers return to schools in Wetzel County on Aug. 17 ahead of the 1st day for students on Aug. 21.

Though the school is in good shape, Hundred High’s athletic complex, which includes a football field and baseball field, sustained significant damage a week after separate flooding.

“We had cleaned it up, had it all clean, ready to go and it flooded again,” Highley said.

The athletic complex at Hundred High School in Wetzel County sustained damage in the July flooding.

Renovation work was underway at the field site with a new press box and bleachers scheduled to arrive next week. Fences were destroyed in the flooding and water made it into the concessions stand and field house.

For now, the Hundred High School football team is utilizing facilities at Clay-Battelle High School in Monongalia County.

Highley could not say if the Hundred field would be ready for the start of the 2017 season.

“Our goal is, first and foremost, to make sure people have what they need as far as the necessities of life and then we’re already working our ‘Plan A’ and ‘Plan B’ as far as the football field goes,” Highley said.

He described the people of Hundred as “strong people.”

“It’ll bring people closer together,” he predicted. “In times of need, people rally and the people from Hundred are very proud people and they want to rebuild and they want to make things better and we’re here to support that.”

No water made it into Valley High School, but the vocational-agricultural building with its welding space, woodworking shop and greenhouse, which is separate from the main school building, saw several inches of water leaving behind layers of mud and silt.

By Tuesday, Panhandle Cleaning and Restoration was on site and estimating cleanup work would take five days.

Damage to equipment within the Valley High vocational-agricultural building was still being assessed.

A feeder school for Hundred High, Long Drain School in Metz, sustained some water damage with water reported in back hallways and the gymnasium. Highley said some of the wood floor would have to be removed to fully assess the damage there.

In Marion County where the new school year begins on Aug. 23, more than 16 inches of water was reported in the basement of Mannington Middle School after storms leading into July 29.

“There was some damage to the furnace. That’ll be several thousand dollars to replace that and then we had some special education equipment for physically handicapped students that will need to be replaced,” Price said.

He said there should be no issue, though, opening Mannington Middle on time.

“We had people in on Saturday as the water went down beginning to scrub things up,” he said. “That’s the way you have to clean up. As the water goes down, you have to start cleaning up right then.”

Price is a resident of Mannington and a veteran of several floods. Several feet of water made it into the basement of the home where he’s lived since 1962 and did vehicle damage as well.

“That’s the highest the water’s been,” he said. “It came up tremendously fast and went down very fast.”

In Ohio County, flood damage was reported at Steenrod Elementary during the weekend of July 22.





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