Crews clean up water damage in Camdenton school

Parts of Oak Ridge Intermediate School in Camdenton flooded this summer, causing some water damage.

Now, crews are working against a deadline to clean up and make sure there is no mold in the school before the first day of classes on August 18.

Staff first noticed some flooding in one of the school’s hallways in mid-July, Camdenton R-III School District Superintendent Dr. Tim Hadfield said. Service Master crews have been working for the last two weeks to clean up water damage in classrooms.

“We’ve had some carpet that we’ve pulled out of the building,” Hadfield said. “And being in the cleanup process right now, we’re trying to determine what we’re going to save and then what may be pitched.”

Another company is replacing the carpets. And an outside consultant is testing air quality within the school, Hadfield said.

In the areas of the school tested so far, the air quality has tested satisfactory. But there is some further testing to complete, Hadfield said.

“With the amount of rain that we had in June and July, the water table in Missouri’s pretty high,” Hadfield said. “And so we had it basically seep up through the floor, and that was our issue. So we’re trying to figure out what the drainage issues are and be able to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”

Hadfield did not have an estimate of how much the cleanup will cost yet, but he said it will come out of the school’s budget.

“Yeah we’ll have to take that out of our budgeted expenses,” Hadfield said. “And so we’ll have to make some decisions regarding that.”

The cleanup is set to be done before the first day of school next Tuesday.

“It’ll be a little different, we’ll have some classrooms maybe with some remnant rugs in and those sorts of things,” Hadfield said. “We’re going to be open and ready for business first day of school.”

None of the other Camdenton R-III schools were affected by flooding, according to Hadfield.