WESTON, W.Va. — Mud and muck remain on school properties throughout Lewis County a little over week after devastating floodwaters swept through the area.
Lewis County Superintendent of Schools Carolyn Long told MetroNews that fixing damage to school properties is going to cost multiple millions of dollars.
“We have a ballpark figure; it comes close to $6 million, if not a little more,” Long said.
Long said the school board is trying to develop a Plan A and Plan B for reopening schools, depending on whether or not they receive FEMA funding. While several schools in the district have flood insurance, Long said the system doesn’t have sufficient money for flood recovery, and she can’t spend money she doesn’t have.
The ideal scenario, Plan A, would be to open all Lewis County Schools on August 20 and have every single child back in the building. Long said Plan B is still a work in progress, as there are several questions yet to be answered.
The Robert L. Bland Middle School in Weston has received the most damage, Long reported.
“It was under quite a bit of water,” Long said. “It’s right there by the river. Between the water, and the swiftness of the water, and the fact that the water has been every place that we wouldn’t want it to be. It is water that they classify as contaminated. So, it’s become now mud that’s contaminated.”
Long said the good news is that the majority of the Bland school is “built way up,” which means that most of the mud is underneath the school, rather than in it. She said the exception is in the annex, where Vocational Agriculture (Vo-Ag) courses and other small classes take place. Now, crews will work to clean everything and address the mud underneath the schools.
The outdoors were, as expected, severely impacted at all the schools. Playgrounds throughout the area were covered in mud from the rainfall. Long said some run-off that caused damage to asphalt in the parking lot at Lewis County High School, in addition to the school’s track.
“The track is in pretty bad shape at Lewis County High School,” Long explained. “It’s done a lot of damage to that, with all the mud that’s gone down within the cracks and all that.”
Long said the athletic facilities at Bland were also devastated. The Lewis County High School girls’ softball team plays at the Bland field.
“Unfortunately, all the fields are right there,” Long said. “All of our fieldhouses, our concession stand, all of the things for the middle school, and the bleachers are right there. All of that was under a tremendous amount of water. Standing water is a problem, but this water wasn’t just standing. It was flowing.”
Long reported an “awful lot” of damage there, and said they’re working closely with state government to figure out solutions. The gym is fine at Bland, she said, but they’re looking to remove mud from under the building to ensure it’s clean and safe.
Overall, Long said most of the elementary schools are in good shape, as is the high school, save for its issues to the outdoor property. She noted that Leading Creek Elementary, near the Gilmer/Lewis counties border, and Peterson-Central Elementary, received “water intrusion” to the buildings from run-off water.
Company crews are in the schools, Long said, drying out the property and making sure everything is clean and sanitized. She said those schools will be fine. She said the priority is addressing Bland Middle School for now, in order to get children back to school as soon as possible.
Long said the Lewis County Board of Education office also underwent flooding.
“The board office has to be cleaned,” Long said. “We’ve moved everyone from the first floor on the board office up to the second and third. But it is the lowest priority because our schools come first.”
There is no timeline for a return yet, Long said, as they want to make sure a “solid plan” is in place. She said they’ll reach out to parents once they have solidified plans.
“If the plan does not fit what they need, we’re going to try our very best, you can’t always promise to do everything, but we’re going to try our very best, so that we can help these families that might not have a car that can get a child someplace.”