Atlanta area students on Tuesday were finally granted a reprieve from dark rainy school days but will have to return to their desks Wednesday, school district officials said.
Douglas County students were the only exception. In fact, Douglas officials said schools would remain closed a third day because of a damaged water main that severely cut water pressure to schools.
Although officials were still watching for any turn in the weather, they said classes in metro Atlanta would resume Wednesday morning.
“We will have school tomorrow,” said Jorge Quintana, a spokesman for Gwinnett County School.
Meanwhile, he said, the district’s transportation department is looking for alternate bus routes in the event more heavy rains hit and roads are closed.
Many districts closed school Tuesday after heavy flooding made bus routes inaccessible. In some cases, bus drivers were unable to make it to work and more had to be called in. At two schools in DeKalb County, students had to be rerouted to other schools.
The basement at East River Elementary School in Atlanta flooded but students were able to finish the day unhampered, said Keith Bromery, spokesman for the Atlanta Public Schools. Bromery said the district also experienced power outages at South Atlanta High and Scott Elementary schools.
Karen Stroud, spokeswoman for Douglas County schools, said that because so many county roads and bridges are still closed, school officials are working with city, county and state officials to evaluate the situation.
“It appears when we reopen, we’ll have many bus route changes,” she said.
As late as 2 p.m. Tuesday, three schools were still without power and all but four of the district’s 32 schools had no water.
“We won’t be able to open until the power and water services are restored,” said Stroud. “If water is restored but we’re still under a boil water advisory, we’ll use hand sanitizers and our food services department will use paper products, bottled water, whatever is necessary to have sanitized food preparation.”
Douglas school officials were scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday to gather the latest information on roads and utilities at that time. Stroud said that because the district still doesn’t know when students will be able to return to school, make-up days will have to be determined at a later date.
“We have a few days built into the calendar but not this many,” she said.
Cobb County spokesman Doug Goodwin said he still expected students to return to school Wednesday as scheduled.
District administrators, however, were still trying to find an alternate site for students attending Clarkdale Elementary. That school, located in Austell, was submerged under water.
“It’s looking pretty bleak for the future of that facility,” said Goodwin. “Whenever it’s deemed safe, we will have crews go in to determine the damage and evaluate what the potential loses are.”
-- Gracie Bond Staples
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