Repairing Water Damage at Mandan High | Video

Joel Porter | 10/15/2012

Students and teachers at Mandan High School have been shuffled around the past few days since a water main burst right beneath the high school. It ruptured on Wednesday, and cleaning up is an expensive job.

"So it was a pretty good sized break, about the size of your fist," said principal Mark Andresen.

Last Wednesday, an early morning water main break forced Andresen and his staff at Mandan high school to scramble.

"Any time you get 125 to 150,000 gallons is kind of what they estimated it to be coming through your building--just sitting in your building--it causes a considerable amount of damage."

Damages which could tally around a quarter million dollars by the time cleanup and repairs are finished.

"We had 11 rooms that were affected in the building. Eight of those housed probably anywhere from 15-20 kids."

Andresen says fortunately, the high school runs on two water lines, not just one. So when the ruptured main was shut off, the school still had a water supply and only lost a day`s worth of classes.

"The path of the water actually travelled through our tunnels. One of our biggest challenges is going to be retracing the pathway of the water because there was so much mud that did some in."

Students and teachers have resumed classes temporarily in other parts of the building, while clean-up and maintenance near the auditorium continues.

"By next Monday is kind of our hope to get about 75, 85 percent of our classes back into their original areas."

Andresen says while insurance is expected to cover a majority of the cost, he`s thankful not to be dealing with this kind of work in the middle of winter.

Students won`t have class on Thursday or Friday because of the teacher`s convention. Andresen says cleaning crews will keep working during that time.

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