The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

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The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

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Storm spouts leaks, leads to evacuations

A student walks through the flooded area of the campus near the Student Center. Flooding in some areas of the campus reached over one foot deep today. Photo by Molly Fogarty.
A student walks through the flooded area of the campus near the Student Center. Flooding in some areas of the campus reached over one foot deep today. Photo by Molly Fogarty.

A powerful storm left its mark on the Palo Alto High School campus today, causing minor flooding, a leak in the Library roof and evacuations of several classrooms.

Several areas of the campus flooded this morning, resulting in an evacuation in the English Building, which has since been resolved, according to Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson.

“It was a lot worse earlier when the water was up to about a foot from the door,” Berkson said. “We unclogged the drain back there and that enabled things to flow better.”

The flooding in various areas of the campus have reached above one foot in depth. This is mainly due to the overflow of the campus drainage system, according to Berkson.

“So a lot of those drains flow into a box in the ground, and when it gets saturated that is as good as it’s going to get,” Berkson said. “The newer drains next to the constructions blow out somewhere and that is why you don’t see puddles over there.”

A roof leakage in the entrance of the library facing the Quad has librarian Rachel Kellerman worried for potential damage to the building.

“We reported the leak to campus supervisors and put in a work order for them to check it out,” Kellerman said. “The biggest concern is that there are a lot of electronics in the roof, so hopefully they will be able to check those out and make sure that nothing up there is too wet.”

Navigate and click on the map to see photos from across campus.

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