Students at Chattanooga's Howard High School are moved from their classrooms to the gym because a burst water pipe flooded the third floor.
The last thing anyone needs in this cold weather is to get wet but students stayed dry. The timing of this couldn't have been any better because students were out of class, eating lunch in the cafeteria when the pipe burst.
A steady but slow stream of water continued to drip from the ceiling in a third floor classroom we visited Tuesday afternoon. Just before we were able to get here a torrent of water was gushing from the ceiling, taking the the tiles down with it.
"It was a mess but fortunately the adults were able to get to it with shop vacs and vacuum this stuff up and move students away from the area before they got back on the hallway," according to Executive Principal Dr. Paul Smith.
Quick work by staff and students literally saves the day. Dr. Smith said water flooded the hallway and several classrooms but most was vacuumed or mopped up before causing damage.
Students who were eating lunch were rounded up into another section of the school.
"We just avoided a big disaster, they were able to go right to the gymnasium and get their new assignments, go to a new room and they're working as if nothing had happened," Dr. Smith said.
Maintenance workers were looking for the cause of the leak, assessing the damage and solving the problem within a couple hours. Despite the short-lived flood final exams will begin Wednesday as scheduled.
It turns out the bitter cold weather did not contribute to the problem. Maintenance workers found a stress fracture in a four-inch copper pipe, which was repaired.
"These things happen, it's life," Dr. Smith said.
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