Classes were cancelled for more than 2,500 students in Winnipeg on Wednesday while many of their peers attended schools that opened without power.
An overnight storm caused wind and water damage, flooded school fields and downed phone and internet lines.
The aftermath also prompted principals to call off extracurriculars and outings to The Forks, Oak Hammock Marsh and other sites affected by torrential downpour.
“Let’s call it ‘a rain day,’” said Tony Kreml, superintendent of north Winnipeg’s Seven Oaks School Division. “I’ve been doing this for over 30 years — I can never recall a rain day.”
City divisions closed seven public schools, combined, including four elementary sites (Windsor, R.F. Morrison, Forest Park and Buchanan), two senior years buildings (Churchill and John Taylor) and one middle school (Hedges).
The decision to close Garden City-based R.F. Morrison and Forest Park schools for the day was made out of concern for “operational safety,” Kreml said, noting washrooms, gymnasiums and other areas were in darkness when he visited them in the morning.
The superintendent said their respective back-up generators, which had been running overnight, ran out of fuel.
Aside from reports of leaky roofs, displaced fascias and an ongoing power outage at the maintenance office, Kreml said Seven Oaks facilities are in relatively good shape.
Strong winds, hail and flash floods caused significant destruction elsewhere.
Churchill High School families were informed the Riverview building was shuttered while maintenance crews dealt with “flooding and major water damage.”
“My kids were scared… My son said he didn’t sleep well because of the thunderstorm sounds,” said Jessica Ku, who had planned to register her eldest for Grade 7 and scope out Churchill, his future high school, on Wednesday.
Ku was greeted with a closure sign taped to the locked front entrance of the school whose grounds were littered with broken tree branches.
The mother of two said she was shocked because her seven-year-old and 12-year-old were attending a feeder school nearby.
The Winnipeg School Division only closed Churchill for the day. Four elementary sites — Brock Corydon, Greenway, Norquay and King Edward — welcomed students and staff despite downed phone and internet networks.
Spokesperson Jillian Recksiedler said division leaders, principals and facilities staff were “very busy” assessing damage and cleaning up across the division Wednesday.
The Free Press learned Sisler High School’s basement, which houses its band room, was flooded and instruments of all kinds had to be removed for repairs.
“It’s a sad end to their musical year,” said Brent Johnson, a father at the school who oversees the Manitoba Band Association.
“That band room is a safe space for a lot of students and I’ve seen first-hand, as a parent and as a music educator, the really amazing culture in (Sisler’s) band program.”
The River East Transcona School Division announced it was postponing a Grade 4 soccer tournament because of flooded fields.
In the Louis Riel School Division, 10 field trips were either cancelled or postponed.
Wetlands are natural water regulators, but even Oak Hammock Marsh wasn’t exempt from what spokesperson Jacques Bourgeois described as “a pretty vicious storm.”
Floating boardwalks were submerged, canoes were filled up to their gunnels and water seeped into the newly renovated Wetland Discovery Centre, Bourgeois said.
“We got about 240 mm of rain in five hours,” he said, adding the maintenance team was on site in early in the morning to monitor the situation.
Bourgeois said the popular field trip destination, which is in the midst of its busiest season, will do everything possible to reschedule visits.
Grade 12 students who couldn’t write the provincial essential mathematics exam because of the storm won’t have to take it another time.
The education department confirmed it’s working with schools that had power outages or flooding and students who couldn’t write the exam will receive a final mark based entirely on their classroom assessments.
Everything except for the provincial exam was cancelled at John Taylor Collegiate on Wednesday.
Jordana Buckwold, an assistant superintendent in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division, said test-takers were accommodated in a space “with abundant natural light” and supplementary lighting.
River East Transcona, Louis Riel and the francophone school division all operated at least one building that had lost power. The Pembina Trails School Division was spared from outages, but a spokesperson said “water cleanup” was required in some buildings.
Sunrise and Interlake were among the rural divisions that announced closures on Wednesday.
