Hawaiʻi’s Department of Education received over 300 work orders from schools across the state following the storm last weekend.
Most of the service requests were for minor classroom flooding, downed trees, and damaged roofs and ceilings.
Flooding on the west side of Hawaiʻi Island was bad enough to close Konawaena High School, which will transition to distance learning when students return to school Monday after spring break.
Jesse Souki, the deputy superintendent for operations at HIDOE, said his team is monitoring this weekend’s rain and hopes it won’t delay repairs or worsen existing matters.
“The ground is already saturated, so even though it’ll be lighter rain, it won’t be helpful for flooding and trees that don’t have a good root system and could topple over,” Souki said.
“But on the upside, if there is any upside on this, a lot of this damage has happened during spring break, so we’re more able to work within that window and not affect students or teachers.”
Souki says some of the more serious repairs, like broken ceilings, electrical issues, and fallen trees, might mean students and teachers will have to temporarily move to different classrooms depending on the damage.
He expressed gratitude toward school principals and other administrators who walked their schools to assess the damage after last weekend’s intense weather. School administrators can call the Office of Facilities and Operations to check the progress of each service request.
