South Ripley High School roof sustains heavy damage
Storm tears through county, local school
Wanda English Burnett - Editor

Regular programming on television was interrupted Sunday evening as storms began to roll through the tri-state area. Just as they were forecasted, they hit the Ripley County area with a vengeance taking out trees, power lines and closing roads.

The heaviest structural damage came to the South Ripley High School's roof on the north front side of the building located on Benham Road, Versailles.

According to South Ripley Superintendent of Schools Ted Ahaus, he received a call from Elementary Principal Mark Collier after 11:00 p.m. saying there were several trees down at the elementary school and from what he could see damage to the roof at the Jr/Sr. high school.

Ahaus responded immediately to the school and realized there was a lot of damage.

According to Principal Bill Snyder, who said he got a call about midnight on Sunday, May 30, a portion of the roof angling from the main entrance northward, was torn off when the high winds came through, damaging all administrative offices, a locker area, and several classrooms, including the chemistry room.

Both Ahaus and Snyder had high praise for the firemen who quickly cleared the rooms saving computers, office furniture and more. "There was very little computer damage, due to the firemen's quick response," noted Snyder. He said more than 50 firemen from the Versailles, Osgood, Holton and Friendship departments
worked together to help with the effort.

Noting that there was extensive water damage to rooms affected, Snyder said the insurance companies had representatives on hand on Monday, even though it was a holiday, and were quickly getting damage assessments together. As of Tuesday morning, June 1, at 8:00 a.m. several workers were on hand and essentially the clean up had begun.

"All school records are intact," reported Snyder and "everything's on schedule as usual," he continued saying they expect the cleanup and repair process to take about a month and everything is on target for summer programs including driver's education. Fall will begin as usual. The only good part about the storm coming through when it did was that school wasn't in session with the 2003-2004 school year wrapped up last week.

Snyder said there will be a lot of hustle and bustle and huge dumpsters and lots of workers around the school in the next month, but the operation of the school will continue in spite of the mess.

Ahaus noted that the cleanup is a massive undertaking and crews rolled in on Tuesday morning with large equipment to dehumidify the areas affected with water.

Ripley County Emergency Management Agency personnel were alerted by weather authorities before the storm hit Sunday evening and were in place along with a number of volunteer fire and EMS services and amateur radio spotters.
According to Ripley County EMA Deputy Director Dan Mulford, members from the New Marion, Milan, Osgood, Friendship, and Versailles fire departments worked throughout the night on Sunday.

Power companies and the Ripley County Highway Department were out all night and into the day on Monday restoring power and opening roads that were closed due to downed trees and power lines.

Law enforcement agencies from the Ripley County Sheriff's Department, Milan and Versailles police assisted throughout the storm. The Ripley County Communications Center handled hundreds of storm-related 911 telephone and radio calls from the public and responding agencies.

Mulford reported that the squall line that came through the county bringing high winds, showed a gust of 103 miles per hour at the South Ripley Elementary School.

Mike and Trudy Thomas of South Old Michigan Road can attest to the high winds that swept through the county as a number of their trees were taken down on Sunday night. Thomas reported that he had no structural damage and was thankful no injuries or fatalities had been reported after the storm.

MARY MARGARET MOORHEAD PHOTOS

A portion of the front roof at the South Ripley Jr. Sr. High School in Versailles was blown off during the storm on Sunday night, May 30. Firemen quickly moved computers and records from administrative offices into the gym area (pictured below) to salvage most of the items before the rain came through the roof soaking the inside.

MARY MARGARET MOORHEAD PHOTOS