Many of Palo Alto High School’s walkways are flooded due to today’s rain, a situation which is expected to get worse as the predicted series of storms progresses.

Although Paly students have experienced the school’s tendency to flood in the past, today’s episode proved to be worse than past times have.

“It was definitely crazier than I’ve ever seen it,” sophomore Riley Cassidy said.

The English building was surrounded by deep puddles during lunch, and the asphalt outside of the library was flooded about ankle-deep as well. Additionally, the area around the portables between the math and science buildings was faced with puddles going up to mid-calf on the students that struggled to wade through to get to class.

“It [the flooding] made walking to the library an adventure,” junior Aashli Budhiraja said.

But in addition to adding a new element to the school day, these puddles also made it difficult for many students to get to class, forcing them to take less efficient, roundabout detours.

“It [the flooding] made me late to first period,” Budhiraja said.

Freshman Clara Baker also encountered trouble getting to class.

“I was [late], along with some of my friends, to seventh period,” Baker said.

The administration worked to make getting around campus easier for the students by placing orange traffic cones in the puddles to warn passers-by of the water’s depth and putting wooden planks to serve as bridges over some of the deeper puddles, such as those outside the English building and library.

“They [the bridges] are 10,000 times better than having to swim through the river to get to classes,” Cassidy said.

However, Baker believes that wooden planks and traffic cones are not enough of a solution.

“I think Paly should work on getting a better drainage system so we don’t have to swim to class,” she said.

According to Weather Underground, Palo Alto is forecast to receive even more rain as the week progresses and the series of storms increase in intensity. This means the flooding facing the school will increase as well.

“Hopefully it won’t get too bad because that just wouldn’t be fun for anybody,” Cassidy said.

Baker, too, is worried about the rest of the week, but tries to see the bright side of things.

“Well, it’ll make for an interesting week,” she said.

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Below, find a video from INfocus, which cooperated with Beginning Journalism students, about the recent rain and flooding that ensued.