ELLIS – As reported previously, St. Mary’s School in Ellis sustained damage due to storms on July 25.
Portions of the roof were blown off, the east wall of the gymnasium was damaged, and five out of eight classrooms plus the office had significant water damage. The school was hit by what the National Weather Service calls a microburst.
Flying debris also knocked out two stained glass windows in the adjacent St. Mary’s Church and five windows in the rectory. Lumber pieces pierced several holes in the tin roof of the rectory and made a five inch hole in the church roof.
As the microburst formed and the roof of the school began to come apart, a lot of pressure was created in the school and gym causing the east wall of the gym to “blow out” to release the pressure. There is about a 3 to 4 inch gap between the wall and roof in part of the east wall.
Emergency personnel and volunteers assisted that evening to cover broken windows of the church and rectory, as well as relocate undamaged items in the school to keep from further water damage with future rain forecasted that night.
The next day there was emergency planning meeting with key members of our parish, school, city officials and some contractors to access the problems and begin initial planning. The roofing company gave us a great overview of the damage and the plan for a temporary roof to keep the inside dry. It was decided that we could probably start school as scheduled, and if necessary to rent mobile classrooms.
The roof is being temporarily fixed. This will give us several months to decide what permanent roof system to install.
Since then there has been wonderful support of our school, parish, and community to start cleaning up. There has been storage containers rented to store the undamaged supplies from the school so the major clean up can start after the engineer and inspector review the building.
The school and church do have insurance. The insurance policy we have is a “cash value” policy, which means the 30-year-old roof will be depreciated. The amount received from insurance will probably not completely cover cost of the new roof.
An engineer visited St. Mary’s School Monday and let us know that parts of the building are not structurally sound for students at this point, and we will not be able to use it for this school year.
Repairs will take some time, and so we are securing mobile classrooms for the start of school. We will know more once the architect has analyzed the building this week.
We are optimistic that school will start as scheduled on August 23. Monetary donations can be sent to Equity Bank, Attn: St. Mary’s, PO Box 255, Ellis, KS 67637.
There will be upcoming volunteer work dates. Visit Facebook St. Mary’s Catholic School K-6 or St. Mary’ Church Ellis, KS or call the rectory at 785-726-4522 to be put on a volunteer list. Volunteers must be 16 or older.
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