College Experiencing Flash Flooding

As a result of the tropical downpour-like event during period 6 on Wednesday our school experienced flash flooding. While I am confident that our school could have coped with the rain falling within our school’s grounds, our drainage network could not cope with the river of water that was flowing into our school from Barkly Street. The floodwaters caused significant damage to our Trade Training Centre, Science and Language Centre, Library, staff offices, locker areas and a wing of classrooms. A lot of water also pooled beneath a number of other buildings.

A flood assessment and clean-up crew arrived at our school early Thursday morning and at the time of writing this report they were busy making a full assessment of the damage. I would like to thank our staff and a number of our students who volunteered to help mitigate the impact of the floodwaters and also assist with the clean up afterwards. Particular thanks to Chris Barwick, without whose efforts the damage caused by the flash flooding would have been much worse. Chris worked tirelessly throughout the flood event to keep stormwater grates free of debris to ensure that the floodwaters could get away as quickly as possible and to avoid further flooding.

I am very proud of our students and staff, who have demonstrated great resilience and the high value that we place on education by attending school the next day. We were able to make alternative arrangements for students and teachers to ensure that their classes were held in classrooms unaffected by the flooding, and to ensure that their safety remains our highest priority. I apologise to parents for the slight delay in sending out the SMS advising that there would be school as usual. This delay was the result of the temporary loss of our computer and phone network.