After flash flooding left Big Creek Elementary School with several inches of mud and water in its hallways and classrooms Monday night, cleanup efforts were the first thing on school officials minds. Between 20 and 30 volunteers with the Perry County School District continued those efforts Wednesday morning and well into the afternoon.
As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, two classrooms were completely cleaned and ready to have desks and materials moved back into them. Principal Jeff Castle said the school has not been completely assessed by its insurance agent, and will not know the total amount of damage the flood waters caused until the agent is finished.
“So far, the damage is just to rugs, some of the flooring, and a few books that were on the lower shelves,” Castle said.
Head custodian at Chavies Elementary, Carl Fred Noble, who volunteered to help with the cleanup, said he had never helped with something like this before, but was surprised by what he was met with when he came to the school Wednesday morning.
“We come in this morning and we looked around and we picked what we thought was the worst job, which was the kitchen. And they was mud about two inches thick. I couldn’t imagine, I mean I couldn’t. They worked all day yesterday and I thought, well they’ve got most of it done, but we’ve spent all day in the kitchen. It was in the coolers, mud in the coolers, in the freezers, the bathrooms was bad,” Noble said.
Noble said he thought it would at least take another week, if not longer, for the cleanup to be finished.
photos by Amelia Holliday
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