ON JUNE 30, a crazy incident impacted the whole school — the library was flooded with thousands of gallons of water. 

The catastrophe was first discovered by Mr. Adams when he came in on Sunday. “I came in to get something around four, but then I saw the waterfall coming down the upper halls and had to make a few calls,” he said. The first of those calls was to custodian Andrew Fairclough, who arrived 15 minutes later. After another 15 minutes, Mr. Fairclough was able to close off the leaking pipe and stop the flow of water within the whole building. 

Then it was time for cleanup. Fairclough says that the whole ordeal was so bad that he had PTSD from the whole incident. While he had been closing off the water, Mr. Adams notified the district who then mobilized 50 people to help with the flood. 

“They got people to work and clock in for the hours spent cleaning up and getting rid of the water,” Mr. Adams said. “When I came in the next day and all the water was gone,” Mr. Adams said. 

 After the water was removed, the district then did an inspection of the pipes. From that inspection it was concluded that the pipe wasn’t secured correctly, and the offending pipe was in the 3D-printer room. 

Along with that, the overall water spilled was more than 10,000 gallons, which is half of what a swimming pool needs to be filled! 

The flood damaged a variety of materials. According to Mr. Johansson, the librarian, water destroyed 3D printers, paper printers, laminators, Chromebooks, office supplies, and textbooks. The loss in that room alone was at least $600,000. The carnage doesn’t stop there; the water flowed beyond the library, leaving a swamp-like level of moisture in its wake. 

The flood ruined the carpet, books, shelves and plenty of other things. From there, it also destroyed appliances like the librarian’s mini fridge, along with extra Chromebooks. As the flood left the library, the water leaked into halls, creating waterfalls and damaging some other classrooms nearby and below. 

“Apparently the water went into the lower D hall classes, but we don’t know the actual damage cost,” Ms. Sutherland said. 

“I also heard that the water leaked into E-Hall too.” With the damage to the library and now to the classes, the estimated loss was around $1,000,000.

Mr. Adams realized that Granger couldn’t operate without a library. Therefore, he set to work on contingency plans, “One of my main concerns was actually how school was going to continue, so Fairclough and I made a couple plans. We also had to make the teachers wait a bit before they could set up their classrooms.”

Luckily, the best-case scenario did happen, and school didn’t need to be delayed! The librarians did want students to know they have been hard at work restoring and improving the library. Mr. Adams had a goal for completing the repairs. “The library should be fine by the end of the first quarter.” 

The library is now open for business. A new foosball table and fresh books are ready to entertain students at lunch and after school.