Around 12:30pm on Tuesday, the waterproofing system on top of the roof was ripped off at Shelby High School due to the high winds.
Superintendent forShelby Public Schools, Elliott Crump, said this was a newly installed system.
“We have the membrane on our roof, our waterproofing system, that was just attached this past summer, so it's a new system,” Crump said. “Unfortunately, it wasn't able to withstand the winds that we we’re having today. A portion of it came off; I believe the rest of it just started following along with that after the first portion came off.”
Shelby Public School District contacted the contractor for the waterproofing system and they were in route to Shelby to assess the damage and replace the system.
“We were able to get our fire department up on the roof; they were able to cut off the portion that was flapping in the wind, so that came down. Doesn't seem like there's any structural damage as far as the facility or the roof is concerned, it was just the waterproofing system.”
The City of Shelby fire department and law enforcement responded quickly to the call and began removing the debris from the school lawn.
“As soon as we found out we had all of our administrative staff here, we had law enforcement here to make sure people were outside of the area, all of our custodial staff from both buildings came over to this facility to help with the water coming into the facility, getting our Kaivac machines going, making sure we're keeping that water off, [and the] technology department came down, unplugged all of the computers, made sure we're not going to damage any of that equipment.”
After evaluating the situation further with his custodial staff and the school board, they will determine how to proceed from here.
“If we're able to, we'll have our students back in school tomorrow,” said Crump.
The Shelby Public School District is not planning on cancelling school at this time. We will continue to update you as we know more information.
