HOUSTON — Kingwood High School is no stranger to severe flooding. Hurricane Harvey left extensive damage throughout the building for months.
Friday’s severe weather also left its mark, but fortunately not as bad as parents and students were fearing.
On Monday afternoon, fans and humidifiers were still running to dry out parts of the school.
Dr. Elizabeth Fagen, the Humble ISD Schools Superintendent, says the weight and training rooms, a classroom, and hallway took on water during the storms.
“We had some wind damage, minor. And then we had a couple of inches of water that came back from the storm sewers into the building,” said Dr. Fagen.
Students were concerned that the building would be inundated, and also worried that tests and classes would be canceled at the end of the school year.
Friday night, the principal of Kingwood High School emailed parents saying everything would be open for Monday.
Student volunteers helped clean up some of the wet areas. District officials say compared to Hurricane Harvey, this was nothing to be overly concerned about.
“Harvey was an event that overwhelmed the rivers and that caused extreme flooding in Kingwood. This was just a rain event,” Dr. Fagen told KHOU 11.
Harvey flooded out Kingwood High, leaving the school in 5 feet of water. The district spent $63 million on remediation and repairs and during those 8 months Kingwood’s students and staff had to share Summer Creek High School.
The storm left many of Kingwood’s 3,000 students and staff wondering how the repaired building would handle future storms.
Supt. Fagen says the school district is continuously evaluating the area’s storm sewer relief systems, but that ultimately, Mother Nature has the last say.
The Superintendent says they’re still in the process of replacing the carpeting in the classroom affected.
Friday night, a JROTC was canceled. The SAT test was administered at the school on Saturday as scheduled.
ALSO POPULAR ON KHOU.COM