School plants impacted by Hurricane Elsa- Bradshaw 

Several of the nation’s public schools were affected by Hurricane Elsa which pummelled the island

with winds that peaked near 82 miles per hour and heavy rains.

Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw told a national update this evening on the impact of the system that “50 per cent of the schools have no structural damage” but there is minor damage across various plants.

She said: “We have got windows that are missing because of the heavy wind, water intrusion in some of the classrooms. There has been damage to the guttering and to the pipes, there has also been missing light fittings and fixtures and of course some minor roof issues.”

According to preliminary estimates, affected primary schools include Bay Primary, Erdiston Special School and Luther Thorne in St Michael,  Gordon Walters in Christ Church and St Catherine’s Primary in St Philip.

“At Bay Primary, there has been some damage to the water tank,  at Erdiston Special School, the ceiling fell

in one area and there are structural columns that have been impacted and damage to the water tank there,” she said.

“At Gordon Walters, we have windows that are completely out at this point and at Luther Thorne, there’s the roof off from a section of the school and also at St Catherine as well.”

Bradshaw also disclosed that fallen trees on school campuses were a concern.

“So we have about nine schools where we have large trees that have fallen probably because they are aged but because of their size, they have impacted the ability to get on to the premises, or  to traverse the premises and so those are

being removed with the co-operation of MTW [Ministry of Transport and Works] as well as private contractors wherever possible in order to remove those as quickly as possible.”

Among the score of secondary schools, the Coleridge and Parry School in St Peter was the most heavily damaged.

She said: “There was major damage at the Coleridge and Parry School, major roofs are off, there has been water intrusion,

fallen trees and debris across the school plant, windows have been blown out from the pre-fab classrooms, some exposed soft stone and a number of ceiling tiles have also been removed by the weather.”

Grantley Adams Memorial also suffered damage including fallen electricity and telephone wires while at St Leonard’s,

fallen trees affected the student block and the main car park on the eastern side of the school.

The minister said: “The industrial arts blocks have been affected and computers and monitors at the school have also been impacted and damaged by the rain.”

A number of schools are still in use as public shelters. These include St Christopher Primary, The Lodge School, Blackman and Gollop Primary, Lester Vaughan and Gordon Walters Primary.