Flooding at Eastside High School causes over $500,000 in damages
By Jayed Rahman
Published: August 21, 2015
The pipe break that caused a flood inside Eastside High School on August 8th, 2015 has caused over $500,000 in damages, said the district’s facilities director Steve Morlino.
Morlino said a ruptured pipe in a bathroom was the culprit. He said the rusted pipe broke giving way to flooding that started on Friday and continued into Saturday releasing a great amount of water.
The line that ruptured was securing a sink that was removed years ago where the piping rotted out and caused the system to fail,” said the facilities director.
“It ran all night and was discovered early Saturday morning,” said Morlino on Wednesday evening.
27 rooms and offices were affected by the flooding, said the director. Nine classrooms have been impacted as well, he said. He also said cascading water impacted five staircases and dumped water into the lower level. “It damaged quite a bit of equipment,” said Morlino.
Fire alarms, smoke and heat detectors, ceiling tiles, light fixtures, and many computers were damaged, he said.
Morlino said transcripts and records were also damaged.
The director said the damages were thought to be under $100,000 at first, but after a preliminary assessment that number markedly increased to over $500,000. As time went by and we saw the extent of the damage — we estimate just damage to the building is over $500,000, said Morlino.
Morlino said three different companies came out through the district’s insurance provider to assess the damage and see what it will take to clean up.
He said rooms are being sanitized after they have been cleaned.
“All rooms should be finished by September 2nd,” said Morlino. He said rooms 102 and 103 will be the only two that will not be completed. He said those two rooms will be worked on after school opens.