Thunder rattles windows and bullets of water pound down on the roof. The blare of flash flood warnings on students’ phones break the steady sound of rain.
On Oct. 4, a steady stream of rain caused a multitude of issues around Texas High School, including flooding in the foyer of the Sullivan Performing Arts Center. The school has given mixed reports as to the location of the leak.
“We believe it’s the windows and the fact that it’s 14 years old now. It just has to be maintained. Maintenance is already looking at what needs to be done,” TigerVision/PAC coordinator Charles Aldridge said. “I don’t think it’s gonna get any worse than what it is now because it’s just some window seals leaking. If it was something worse, then they’d be doing something bigger on it, but [right now] they’re evaluating what to do. There’s no major damage from what we can tell.”
Though maintenance made plans to repair the damage, the leaks cannot be sealed until the rain stops for a prolonged period of time. It’s uncertain how the damage will progress until then.
“I’ve talked to maintenance, and they’re not going to be able to do anything until the rain stops, so it can progressively get worse,” assistant principal Jo Dee Lott said. “At the time it is unknown how greatly it’s going to be impacted because the rain is supposed to last through tomorrow, so there could be more damage than initially thought.”
With the Tiger Theatre Company’s first show of the new year set to premiere on Oct. 5, tensions have climbed high. Because of the unexpected circumstance, directors changed rehearsal times.
“I don’t know [what’s going to happen with the show tomorrow] is what’s the scary answer. It will depend on when the rain stops and how extensive the cleanup process is going to be,” theater director Brandon Shoemaker said. “But we’re teachers, and our motto is always to monitor and adjust. And so, that’s what we will do. We just don’t know what those adjustments are going to look like.”
Without the knowledge of what the next day will bring and if the rain will let up, no definite plans can be made for tomorrow’s show. Nonetheless, students will adapt to this situation and plan the next steps.
“It’s definitely a scary situation going into the night before our show, and it’s gonna be difficult to make adjustments, but I know we’ll figure something out,” junior Xavier Briggs said. “Time is definitely going to be a struggle because I know today our boosters were supposed to be coming in and decorating the lobby, but now the lobby is flooded, so we have to find time to get out there and get it cleaned up and push forward from there.”
In addition to the leak, the storm blew over a tree behind the PAC, ripping up dirt and pavement. The campus has yet to report any other storm induced damage.
“The tree slowly fell, so thankfully, no students were around. However, Ms. Davis did go out and check just to verify that there were no students under the tree,” Lott said. “We contacted maintenance and they are working on a plan to get the tree removed; the tree was going to be removed anyway with the new building of the CTE. However, we just sped that up a tad bit.”
