THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 21, 1996 TAG: 9606190121
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 42 lines
School officials are investigating the cause of a minor flood on Oscar F. Smith High School's auditorium stage.
The flood occurred during a dance recital Saturday afternoon while parts of Chesapeake were being doused by heavy rains.
Water gushed up through an electrical opening in the stage floor, and flowed over the edge.
``I understand it just covered the entire stage and cascaded down into the orchestra pit,'' said Janet M. Andrejco, the school's principal, who was not at the school when the incident occurred.
The power in the auditorium was knocked out. Some sound equipment was damaged, a stage curtain was water-stained and some stage floor boards were warped.
But no one was hurt, Andrejco said. About eight dancers were herded off the stage. The recital continued in a separate, small theater in the school.
The auditorium was dried and cleaned in time for a recital later that evening. There's another dance recital scheduled to be held in the auditorium Saturday, Andrejco said. She said she did not know whether the problems would be corrected by then.
As of Tuesday, Andrejco and Richard L. MacDonald, the school system's director of school plants, did not know the cause of the flood. MacDonald said it might have originated underground, where the school's roof drain pipes connect with the city's stormwater drainage system.
``We're thinking that possibly one of the joints is broken,'' MacDonald said, which would have forced water up through the sand under the stage and through an opening for electrical conduits.
MacDonald said he planned to hire a repair company that uses small cameras to snake through underground pipes to find problems.
He did not know whether the incident could be traced to faulty construction. Oscar F. Smith High opened in the fall of 1994.
``I don't think you can really say it's anybody's fault right now, until you find out what it is,'' MacDonald said.
He did not have estimates of how much the problem would cost to fix.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE SCHOOLS by CNB