Lewisburg Elementary School suffers water leak, books and computers destroyed in library

By Sarah Richardson
On Sunday, Dec. 14, it was discovered that a pipe had burst at Lewisburg Elementary School (LES) and affected the school library, computer lab, and several other areas.
“On Sunday morning, approximately at 4 a.m., the fire department received an alarm from Lewisburg Elementary, and the police department responded to that and entered the school and found water on the floor outside the library. When they entered the library, they discovered a significant amount of water damage,” explained Superintendent Jeff Bryant. “Ceilings were down, of course the carpets were soaked, books were damaged, and it was definitely a mess. It was significant.”
He states that a sprinkler head froze, and when it burst, it started the flow of water into the school. The sprinkler was quickly repaired, “and we are looking at any other event that may have caused this, but it appears to have just been the cold weather, and for some reason it froze and it burst, it’s just one of those things.” He clarified that the heat was “never turned off,” and said they are investigating the sprinkler system in the ceiling, noting that they did see one lever that was “possibly stuck open.”
He said that they responded to the leak “immediately,” and called ServPro from Beckley to come remediate the damage.
“We did lose some technology, some computers from water damage,” he said, but credits the Lewisburg PD, LES Principal Sara Bennett, Librarian Emily Shirey, and other teachers and staff members for their quick response.
LES was already closed to students for a snow day the next day, Monday, and Bryant said he closed school for students on Tuesday to allow ServPro time and space to work. Students returned to regular instruction on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
“They’ve done an excellent job of sectioning things off to keep students away from certain areas,” explained Bryant. “We’ve taken every precaution to keep everything safe for the students, and to try to mitigate as much damage as possible, so we can evaluate what we need to do with any further removal.”
He said they are continuing to run dehumidifiers and fans to dry out the damaged areas, and “the experts feel really good about where we are at.”
“I cannot complement the administration, staff, and teachers at Lewisburg Elementary enough, they have been stellar throughout this process, they have done a tremendous job,” Bryant reports.