Ocracoke School, After Matthew
He was standing amid the Vocational Education classroom's equipment, which was spread out in the sun to dry. Last year, the shop class made the move from the main school building to the old Fire Hall on the Back Road, and the old shop classroom became the maintenance department. Both spaces flooded during Hurricane Matthew, along with the weight room for Ocracoke School athletes.
"We don't know yet how much we've lost from the Vocational Ed room," Padgett said. "This machine here cost $10,000, and it was too heavy for us to lift it onto blocks."
The c. 1960's building saw its record high water at 18" inside its brick walls.
The high school shop class students have pitched in to clear out the classroom and move the machinery into the sunshine. Substitute shop teacher William Howard, who's been filling in while the regular teacher, Jeff Schleicher, recovers from knee surgery, was working hard to get the shop ready for school to resume.
"William didn't have to help," Padgett noted, "But by Gosh, he did. He and the kids have been a really big help."
The plan for the machines is to "air 'em out, spray 'em with WD40, and hope they still work. If not, thank God we have insurance," Padgett said.
Padgett also wanted to thank Jeramy Guillory who has been helping clean out the weight room, hoping to save the weights and machines.
"We may have lost two treadmills," Padgett said. "We set them up two feet, but 30" of water came in." He also said the dryer used to launder team uniforms may be another casualty of Hurricane Matthew.
Ocracoke School has been cancelled since last Thursday (October 6th).
Tomorrow, (Thursday, October 13th), Padgett has called for a teacher work day to prepare for students to return, hopefully on Friday. The flooded rooms may take a while to dry out, but the rest of the school will be ready soon.
The high tide line came very close to the main building, but "did not seep through," said Padgett. The library was spared as well, and has been open for public hours (3-7pm) since Tuesday.
The school's alarm system is also down, and Padgett hopes a trial run on Thursday will solve that issue.
I found Ocracoke School's head of maintenance, Denny Widener, sweeping the middle school math classroom. He is sanitizing the whole school with bleach because even without floodwater inundation, the buildings have been "sitting for a week closed up in all the humidity."
"We need the power to stay on constant," Denny said of his mopping and de-humidifying efforts.
"It's a day-to-day decision," said Padgett about resuming school for students. "A lot goes into it and we don't know yet if we can go Friday. We've never had anything like this, but we will pick up and move on."
Update: Ocracoke School will be in session on Friday, and Homecoming will proceed as planned: Hotdog/bake sale at 4:30pm, middle school basketball game at 5pm, with the Homecoming Court to follow around 6:30, and a high school basketball game. Admission is FREE! The Current will be there to take photos, of course.
