Richmond County schools repairing storm damage today

Richmond County school officials are busy this morning assessing the damage from this weekend’s severe weather.

The damage includes the roofs being ripped off of nine portable classrooms and bleachers being thrown through the backstop at Glenn Hills Middle School, said Benton Starks, senior director of facilities services. At nearby Glenn Hills High School, several 80-foot light poles were snapped in half by the baseball field.

Mr. Starks said his office has asked all school principals to tally and photograph storm damage. He expects to file a claim with the school system’s insurance agency later this morning and said it’s too early to put a dollar figure to the damage.

Damage seemed less of a problem in Columbia County, which probably won’t require any government-aided disaster relief.

“All of our damage is privately insured,” said Columbia County Emergency and Operations Director Pam Tucker. “Everybody (sustaining damage to their property) has contacted their insurance companies.”

No public buildings were damaged in the storm that produced winds as high as 105 mph in some areas of the county, Mrs. Tucker said this morning.

Also, no one was displaced due to the storm, she said.

“Though we did have some trees through some roofs, nobody’s home was uninhabitable,” Mrs. Tucker said.

An assessment team from the National Weather Service estimated the damage at about $300,000 during a Saturday tour of the county.

No Columbia County resident was injured during the storm.

“You can’t stop weather, but you can be ready for it, and our citizens were,” Mrs. Tucker said.