Burst Pipe Causes Water Damage In Owasso High School Library

Owasso Public Schools are scrambling to make repairs after a pipe burst, causing major damage to the high school library.

Cleaning crews have a lot of work to do, and school representatives say it will take weeks to finish.

A trailer is now filled with damaged items, along with other repair equipment after school representatives said an upstairs bathroom pipe burst, sending water flowing into the downstairs library.

All of the books at the Owasso high school library are out of place, and they'll be that way for quite a while because many are soaking wet.

High school principal Matt Roberts said, "Thank goodness school doesn’t start until August 18 because we'll be able to get everything taken care of when the students come back. We won't be at 100 percent, but we'll be ready to go for the first day of classes."

Roberts said water got into four classrooms, but the majority of it leaked through the ceiling and walls into the library.

The library has about 10,000 books in its inventory; and books that are completely saturated are having to be tossed out, right along with the damaged furniture.

"Right now, the process they are doing is to get rid of the moisture and mildew," Roberts said.

Due to the amount of damage, the school called in a disaster team. They are sectioning off areas and running high powered fans to save what they can.

The principal said they'll try to dry out the books as best as possible, but that's the easy work.

Carpet will have to be ripped out and so will some of the walls.

Roberts said, "We didn't have full standing water, so it wasn't ankle deep. It was like walking in puddles."

He said, even with weeks’ worth of work to do, things could have been worse.

Roberts said the school has been in the process of phasing the books into e-readers, the incident may speed up that process.

Insurance will cover the damage.