Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for June 17, 2009 STORM DAMAGES CENTURY SCHOOL

Century High School Receives Damage During Storm

By: Rachel Gartner

PULASKI COUNTY-- Areas in Pulaski County were hit by strong winds during Tuesday morning's storm, including the Century High School.

As players of the Century High School Basketball team unloaded from the bus, they catch their first glimpse of one of two of the schools gymnasiums.

"I think this school is in a bad spot. We catch every bit of wind that comes through here."

The team only heard about the storm Tuesday morning. The team and the school's athletic director and boy's basketball coach, Tyson Bormann, were busy hitting the court at the Murray State Basketball camp.

"My principal sent me text message with a picture of the hole in the roof."

But, Bormann says, this isn't the first time they've seen daylight in the gym...

"We've actually been in there at times when the wind can pick up and you can actually watch the top of the roof raise up and you can see daylight between the wall and the roof."

But this time it's a little more than a peak of daylight...

"Now we've got a sunroof."

The school building not only lost half of the roof of the gymnasium, but a section of roof on the maintenance building as well. The the school baseball field also sustained damage, including a downed light pole.

"I've not been here that many years, but I've never heard of metal poles coming down just from a strong windstorm like that. Dugout roofs maybe- light poles- no."

Other parts of Pulaski county received storm damage as well. Witnesses report downed tree limbs and some debris, but no reports of major structural damage.