Warm 35º...occasional wind...5am

Maybe the wind gusts have finally quit...The winds of the past two days remind me of a time 30 years ago this month...I worked in the school cafeteria and walked daily with my boss Margaret to work, no matter what the weather...The wind had blown all night but on that morning had calmed down and the rain had stopped...We visited our way up the hill to the school...No debris scattered around and we didn't look up...I was first in the door that morning and walked through the kitchen headed for the light switch...It was very dark and seemed like water on the floor (broken pipes, I thought)...I switched on the light and opened the door into the cafeteria where I was met by a light filled room, looked up into a star filled sky as the cafeteria was missing most of its roof...Water now covered my feet as it rushed through the kitchen door...About that time Janice the morning custodian burst through the other cafeteria door and said, "Oh my god, there is water flooding everywhere!"

More of the early morning staff (bus drivers) arrived...Bud head of maintenance and busing started making phone calls...First to the new superintendent, who called teachers, canceled school and told everybody to stay home...Bud started calling contractors and about that time the wind and rain returned with a vengeance...No matter what the superintendent had told people no one stayed home, soon kids, teachers and parents were there...People had push booms moving water to the outside, industrial vacuums arrived, people were sand bagging the gymnasium doors to keep the water away from the hardwood floors...Others were rescuing photo's and frames blown off of the walls and now floating in 3" of water...Contractors worked in hazardous conditions together with students and staff to get a temporary roof on the cafeteria.

We the cafeteria staff could see the writing on the wall...Our Christmas break was going to start a couple of days early and what were we going to do with the ham waiting in the walk-in to be cooked for our annual Christmas dinner...Immediately we made plans to fix breakfast and lunches for all the people now working at the school...By late afternoon the school was repaired enough to keep the continuing rain out and plans made to have a new roof in place so school could start again in January...By 3pm everyone had been fed and we cleaned up our kitchen, froze food that we hadn't used and called it a day....Hugs To All....OWAV:)