Going into Wednesday, Shelby Public Schools decided to resume school as normal with students in their regular classrooms. They did close the auditorium, main office, and library due to water damage.
“We ended up needing to close off a certain section of the school because that's where the membrane blew off. So any water that is on the roof is able to get into those cracks in different areas and then flow down in through the walls. We're getting some water coming through onto some of the floor areas; we've got a lot of cleanup that's needed in these areas,” said superintendent Elliot Crump.
Crump said that the roof is structurally sound, aside from the waterproof portion that came off.
“When we were originally trying to clean up [the debris], we were picking things up, it was breaking apart, and then it was making more of a mess. So we're hoping the wind will die down later today, possibly tomorrow, and then we can hopefully get the rest of the cleanup process done,” Crump said.Their goal is to get the school cleaned up, restored, and back to normal by the end of this week.
Crump added, “Looking forward to getting the contractor here, the insurance here, and hopefully getting all of this stuff resolved so that we can get back to the normal as soon as possible.”
(MAY 7, 2024) Around 12:30pm on Tuesday, the waterproofing system on top of the roof was ripped off at Shelby High School due to the high winds. Superintendent forShelby Public Schools, Elliott Crump, said this was a newly installed system.
“We have the membrane on our roof, our waterproofing system, that was just attached this past summer, so it's a new system,” Crump said. “Unfortunately, it wasn't able to withstand the winds that we we’re having today. A portion of it came off; I believe the rest of it just started following along with that after the first portion came off.”
Shelby Public School District contacted the contractor for the waterproofing system and they were in route to Shelby to assess the damage and replace the system.
“We were able to get our fire department up on the roof; they were able to cut off the portion that was flapping in the wind, so that came down. Doesn't seem like there's any structural damage as far as the facility or the roof is concerned, it was just the waterproofing system.”
The City of Shelby fire department and law enforcement responded quickly to the call and began removing the debris from the school lawn.
- Shelby High School roof damaged by wind
- DUI suspected after truck goes in river
- 'Trucker's Last Ride' for Dawson Baroh
- Community Events Calendar
“As soon as we found out we had all of our administrative staff here, we had law enforcement here to make sure people were outside of the area, all of our custodial staff from both buildings came over to this facility to help with the water coming into the facility, getting our Kaivac machines going, making sure we're keeping that water off, [and the] technology department came down, unplugged all of the computers, made sure we're not going to damage any of that equipment.”
After evaluating the situation further with his custodial staff and the school board, they will determine how to proceed from here.
“If we're able to, we'll have our students back in school tomorrow,” said Crump.
The Shelby Public School District is not planning on cancelling school at this time. We will continue to update you as we know more information.
