School Flood Repairs Could Top $300,000

The cost of cleaning up the flood damage at Stone Corral Elementary School could top $300,000, said Chris Kemper, the school's superintendent.

Stone Corral, which has 137 students, has a $1.5 million operating budget.

At least 6 inches of water poured into classrooms after the Mehrten Creek levee overflowed in Woodlake on Wednesday, causing flooding in Seville.

Kemper described the flooding near Stone Corral as being like "a river."

A local joint-powers agreement will pay for about $50,000 of the final amount, but Kemper is hoping that the state would declare the area a disaster so the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay for the rest.

While the state does have an emergency fund for schools, Kemper said it pays for just about everything except flood damage.

"If a school were to catch on fire, that would be covered. You could have an airplane crash on your school and that would be covered," he said. "The second you have floodwater come into a school, it's not covered."

More will eventually have to be done besides drying up the carpet. Every time floodwater enters a school, the flooring has to be replaced, Kemper said.

The school isn't able to get flood insurance, Kemper said, because the Seville area floods about every four years.

ServiceMaster crews were pumping water from the school Wednesday and Thursday. They were also ripping up baseboards, which also will have to be replaced.

"You wouldn't believe it," he said. "All the water that was out there in the field is gone," as was the water in the auditorium and cafeteria.

"You wouldn't even know there's a flood. That's the sad part," he said. "Within 24 hours, a whole school's life could change."

Kemper said that if an emergency isn't declared, the work will likely be done in phases, beginning with cleaning the carpet. The next phase would be removing the carpet, and the final phase would be replacing the flooring in the auditorium and cafeteria.

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