Adams cleanup going according to schedule
Published 4:02 pm Thursday, October 5, 2017
By Lorenzo Salinas
Repairs are going according to plan at Staff Sergeant Lucian Adams Elementary School in Port Arthur.
The school was one of two Port Arthur school buildings severely impacted by Harvey floods. The other one was the administration building located further down 9th Avenue. Unlimited Restoration, Inc. (URI) is the contractor PAISD hired to clean out the buildings and to make them sanitary again.
Work started at the beginning of September and is “right on schedule,” according to one of the URI principals, Rodney O’Neal.
“We have a timeline of three to four weeks to have the building collectively demolished, cleaned down and sanitized,” O’Neal said. “We gave (the district) three to four weeks, and this Friday we’ll be complete with our phase there.”
O’Neal said the school had received anywhere between four to six inches of rainwater, with some parts higher or lower than others. That water quickly became what O’Neal and workers in the trade call “black water.”
Black water, or Category 3 Water, is water that’s considered highly unsanitary and contains harmful bacteria, fungi, sewage and fuel.
“Anything that comes in contact with black water should be discarded or selectively demoed out,” O’Neal said.
Over the past month, URI has been removing, cleaning and creating a safe environment within the Adams school.
“It’s a process,” O’Neal said. “We’re just making the school clean and free of any bacterial condition.”
O’Neal was quick to credit the administration for helping the process run easily.
“We’ve got a lot of cooperation from the school. Mark Porterie, Mark Rouly… they’ve been great to work with,” O’Neal said.
URI is also working on the administration building, which received a consistent two feet of water during the flood.
O’Neal said the administration building was on the same timeline as the school; however, he was unsure of the timeline for rebuilding since that was being conducted by another contractor.
A clearance test would be performed Monday at the administration building. If cleared, rebuilding could begin.
PAISD administration was unable to comment on an exact date when Adams would be reopened.
“It may be after the New Year. It all depends on how fast we get out the scope of the work and select a contractor to do the work,” superintendent Mark Porterie said.
“It may take awhile. We want to make sure we address all areas of concern in the building so we do not have to come back later and say, ‘We wish we had seen that.’”
