Heavy Rain, Winds Mean Unexpected Days Off For Green Country Students

Severe storms caused an unexpected day off from school for some Green Country students Thursday.

The wind was strong enough to cause roof damage at the school, which let water get inside as it rained for hours

At Hanna schools, there were seven snow days built into the school calendar.

One of them turned into a rain day when strong storms sat right on top of parts of McIntosh County.

"I haven't seen rain like that in a long time," said Hanna Superintendent Patricia Berry.

The wind rolled off part of the school building's roof, just enough to let water pour inside the openings and into the 70-year-old building.

Berry is the school superintendent.

"The water just went, knocked the ceiling tiles down and went straight into the classroom," Berry said.

The water damaged those ceiling tiles and covered the floors in just two classrooms, but since first through twelfth grades are under one roof and share those classrooms, school was canceled for Thursday

"We had quite a mess last night and we didn't know how much we'd get cleaned up and if we'd be ready for this morning or not," Berry said.

The area got six to eight inches of rain from the storm, which was moving at only ten miles an hour.

While the school's 104 students got an unexpected day off, school employees got an unexpected clean-up job.

Berry says the damage would have been worse if teachers, parents and students didn't step up to help.

"Helping move boxes of books and getting things out of two classrooms down there, so they weren't damaged," Berry said.

The area also got hail and some wind damage, but at least in Hanna the damage wasn't severe, except the water at the school.

Berry said she hopes everything can be cleaned up soon and that the remaining snow days don't have to be used after any more rainy days.

School officials said classes are also going to be dismissed on Friday.