Almost 300 working to repair Hurricane Irma damage to Collier County schools

The water in the Lely High School auditorium didn’t recede until Wednesday – 10 days after Hurricane Irma plowed through Collier County, dumping rain that suffocated the region’s lowest-lying areas.

The floodwaters rose more than a foot, creeping up the first 16 rows in the auditorium.

By Thursday, the toxic mixture had drained and left a thick, yellow-brown stain along the stage. Soggy carpets had been torn out, and soaked chairs were stripped from the ground. Large plastic tubes of air ran up and down the aisles, drying out what was left.

“It’s not as damaged as I’ve seen in other places,” said Candie Frank, owner of Service Master Specialty Restoration Services.

“The schools held up very well and the damage was minor in the big realm of things,” Frank said.

Frank and her team of 80 workers spent the last month cleaning schools in Houston that were ravaged by Hurricane Harvey. They hadn’t even completed the job when Irma caught Frank’s attention as it took aim at South Florida.

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Frank reached out to Collier County Public Schools, asking whether her company, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, could lend a hand to the district’s 52 schools.

When the district accepted, Frank left a team of about 10 workers in Houston and drove 16 vehicles packed with more than 600 pieces of drying equipment to the other side of the Gulf.

Frank’s team makes up only a fraction of the almost 300 people who have been working to restore the district’s schools to their pre-Irma condition.

The hurricane caused damage to schools everywhere from Immokalee to Everglades City and Naples, said Marc Rouleau, facilities management director for the Collier school district.

In addition to the school district's 80-person maintenance crew, Rouleau hired five large construction management companies and numerous subcontractors, including Frank’s business.

Virtually every school reported water intrusion, downed trees and blown-off exhaust hoods, he said.

Forty schools sustained roof damage and 38 require ceiling, wall and other repairs due to water intrusion.

Many schools with metal roofs now are disfigured due to strong winds that swept up from beneath and bent the metal. Entire sections of the roofs at Golden Gate High School and Corkscrew Middle and Elementary schools blew off, Rouleau said. Other roofs that once had smooth membranes are now bubbled.

Flooding was worst at Everglades City School, where staff found the music room, arts room and gym under three feet of water.

Just four years ago, Rouleau hired an artist from Miami to paint the school’s logo on the gym’s maple floor.

“Unfortunately, that’s all destroyed now,” he said.

Forty-three schools will have to undergo mold remediation, a labor-intensive process that requires the demolition of affected ceiling tiles, drywall and wooden cabinets.

In addition to Lely’s auditorium, that process already had begun Thursday at Barron Collier High School, where Miguel Martinez of Acousti Engineering spent the day on stilts replacing more than 2,500 water-damaged ceiling tiles.

“Our schools are water-tight, but in a situation where there’s winds reaching more than 100 miles per hour, it comes in in places that are not normal paths for rain,” Rouleau said.

Although mold remediation might seem like a daunting task, Rouleau said the most labor-intensive effort has been tree removal.

There are hundreds of downed trees on school district property and removing them requires “tremendous” time and heavy equipment, Rouleau said.

In addition to the flooded rooms at Lely and Barron Collier, the tennis courts and baseball field at Tommy Barfield have damaged fencing. Other than those sites, the schools should be ready Monday for students, Rouleau said.

His staff have been working long hours, seven days a week, to make sure of it.

“Storms bring out the best and the worst in people, and I’ve only seen the best in my staff,” he said. “They’ve stepped up to the plate, worked hard and offered assistance where they didn’t have to.

“I’m very, very proud of them.”

A presentation reviewing all school damage will be made at the School Board meeting Tuesday.