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Flash Flood Caused Extensive Damage at Cameron Elementary

Photo Provided Cameron Elementary School was coated in a thick layer of filth before cleanup efforts began Tuesday morning.

CAMERON — Aside from some slick spots on the linoleum and the damp carpets, Cameron Elementary School looked like it was a standard summer cleaning session, 29 hours after work started cleaning up the muck and floodwaters that struck the town Monday afternoon.

Yet, upon entering the building Wednesday, the extent of the damage was immediately apparent. The rich, powerful odor of mud lingered in the air throughout the whole building, and long-handled squeegees lay against the walls of the classrooms.

Furniture was stacked high wherever it could be, as Marshall County Schools maintenance and custodial staff worked through Wednesday morning to clean what could be cleaned, and identify and pile up what couldn’t. They had been on site since 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Cameron Elementary’s damage was just part of the total found throughout the city and other parts of Marshall County.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in Marshall County. Justice directed the West Virginia Emergency Management Division to implement the West Virginia Emergency Operations Plan as it relates to flooding and mobilize appropriate personnel and resources to respond to the emergency.

The state of emergency will remain in effect for 30 days, unless terminated by subsequent proclamation.

Facilities Director Mike Price said the maintenance and custodial staff were called in to clean up as much as possible, and had done an exceptional job in getting the building cleaned up as quickly as they did.

“I had prepared myself because we were getting all kinds of videos from the night before, and it was kind of hopeless; there was water pouring in, there was nothing we could do at the time, so we had to let it recede, and then do our evaluations and bring the crew in,” Price said. “I commend our staff for taking care of it, cleaning up as well as they did.”

The financial impact of the flooding has yet to be assessed, and will begin soon, Price said. At the very least, floor coverings, such as carpets, are a total loss, as are most casework — cubbies, cabinets, shelving, and other wooden fixtures. Around 25% of the school’s electronics, Price said, were damaged, including computers, modems, and other devices at ground level.

“We have a lot of casework, and you take a classroom like this pre-K, we have a lot of squatted casework, … that took a lot of contaminated water, so a lot of this is going to get replaced,” he said. “… Computers, modems, things that sit on the floor; anything that was sitting on the floor got contaminated, because we got 4 to 6 inches of water damage.”

“We did have our insurance claims adjuster here yesterday, so he’ll do some reports, and part of what we’re doing is salvaging what didn’t get contaminated, and making a pile of stuff that did, and putting a value to all that,” he later added. “Things like the carpet, desks, coverings are easy. It’s things like the learning apparatus, the books, the tools and things for little kids that really got hit hard.”

Price said the valuation of damaged property will be taking place soon, with several agencies involved, including their insurance agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

On the outskirts of town, Cameron High School’s new football field, completed in August 2020 but yet to host a home game due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was believed to have been affected by the waters, too. However, Price said the weight of the turf kept it from being too heavily damaged.

“The turf did get covered with flood water, but we actually went with a higher-grade, sand-based turf that keeps it weighed down, so we actually fared pretty well there,” Price said. “We have minimal damage at all, and the turf company’s coming back to correct some of the wrinkles it has.

“I couldn’t sleep that night thinking about the field, and I got here as soon as the sun came up, and that was the first thing I ran to was the field, because we haven’t even played a game on it yet!”

Price added that local residents described the flooding as among the worst in recent memory, and that the waters came largely not from the creek in front of the school, but down the hill from the back, and up through the plumbing of the building wherever it could.

Price hopes that the situation at the elementary school can be largely remediated by the start of the school year.

“It’s a challenge, because of the way materials are tough to get, getting people here to work all summer long, it’s a challenge, so we’ll see what happens,” he said.

“I’m working on it. I’m hoping that the least we can do is get the floor coverings replaced,” he later added. “… It’s just going to be casework, things that we have no control over purchasing, and things we have no control over purchasing.”

Summer school was set to begin at Cameron Elementary this week, and students will either attend their classes at the high school, or on the untouched second story of the elementary school, while cleaning procedures are underway.

Elsewhere in the county, Price described “minimal” damage to John Marshall High School limited to a small group of classrooms, as a 6-inch pipe broke loose and began flooding one room, which spread to nearby rooms. He said the damage was mitigated by a stroke of fortune as one custodian happened to be at the scene and caught it before the situation got worse.

“It was West Virginia Day, and everyone was off, but we got lucky at John Marshall,” he said. “One of our custodians had to go into the building and heard water rushing. …We had a pipe that catches all our stormwater (that) broke loose and flooded five classrooms on our lower level. We found that real quick, fixed it, and I called Panhandle (Cleaning and Restoration). It was a mechanical breakdown, not really a flooding.”

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