The morning after a deluge

A cursory glance at the athletic field of San Vicente Elementary School will show that the fence is holding up half of the highway’s sidewalk gravel. It would not take a rocket scientist to figure out the engineering contradiction in the situation.

Wednesday and Thursday’s downpour threw a wrench on what was otherwise a smooth opening of school for SVES. Wednesday’s rain proved too much for the Vice-Principal’s office and a couple of fifth grade classrooms, including one occupied by the daughter of one of our prominent island senators. But all hands were on deck before the noon hour to sweep and mop the places dry. Normal life will go on, or so, we thought.

But the sky opened up again. Torrential rains poured thick enough that by 2pm, all the local Saipan originating flights were canceled. Meanwhile, the Chalan Msgr. Guerrero (Capitol Back Road) turned into a friendly hydroplane lane. Strewn with rocks and debris coming from the windward and leeward sides of Kannat Tabla, the downhill intersection of Msgr. Guerrero and Msgr. Martinez Boulevards, by the Iglesia Ni Cristo Church, instantly turned into a rapid of fast tumbling rocks, holding a three-way traffic at snail’s pace.

Uphill, all waters atop San Vicente Village by the church, the Mobil gas station and the Ace Hardware, seemed headed toward SVES. Devoid of side road canals, ditches, trenches, and waterways, rain quickly turned the SVES quadrangle into an Olympic size swimming pool. The kidding was that one of our fifth grade teachers, a swimming enthusiast, finally got his wish.

More threatening was the swift waterfall cascading underneath the ramp that connects the parking lot to Building “A”, home of the school’s upper grades. Already cordoned as a danger zone, with the rain tree on the side teetering under its own weight after the last typhoon loosened the soil around its roots, the ramp’s paved approach has become hazardous to balance and limb with the tree roots pushing up the surrounding pavements. The unrestrained watercourse that developed beneath the ramp Thursday afternoon threatened to collapse the ramp’s foundations. It also sent volumes of water down the classroom hallways, causing reasonable anxieties as children waded in water while electrical outlets remained live.

This time, in addition to the rooms flooded the day before, the waters got into the Principal’s Office, the staff and teachers’ lounge where the books and duplicating machines were located, and the Counselor’s room, hangout to many a child whose behavior in class is less than exemplary.

Thus the closing of SVES Friday. The week’s wet weather had grown moss on the surface of the walkways, causing fright, slippage and a couple of sore behinds. It was a bit chaotic early morning as parents who did not catch the school closing on the radio or the early dailies tried to drop off their children, but by 8am parents had caught on as children walk the day away with glee.

‘’Twas time for teachers, staff and administrators to roll up sleeves, grab the push brooms and sweepers and began the drying up of classrooms and offices. An inch thick of chocolate colored mud had settled on the two previously flooded and just cleaned up fifth grade classrooms. The Special Education room, save for the edges, managed to stay miraculously dry. Someone had enough foresight to line the carpet underpinnings with plastic. Saved the children weeks of fungus and musty odor! The Principal’s “bibles” (tomes of pedagogical designs and formats) got wet, and the office floor was sporting a new gooey color of brown. Ditto for the teachers’ lounge, the Vice-Principal’s domain, and the Counselor’s sitting rooms.

With the power off to avoid electrical accidents under the wet conditions, workers labored in the dark, even as the skies outside remained overcast with more rain threatening to come down.

It’s a universally recognized engineering contradiction that obviously has to be tackled quickly and adequately. Water coming down the hillside and off the highway need to be diverted around and away from the school grounds. The campus’ built-in waterways around the buildings are for normal rivulets of rain, not the cascading torrents of flash flooding.

Central office personnel came. One of our PSS lawyers was on sight during the flooding. There is no doubt about the need. What awaits is the necessary deed. SVES activists are already compiling pictures and records, organizing parents, preparing for the autonomous school council’s action, to lobby the Executive Branch, particularly the Department of Public Works, for immediate attention and response. It’s a no-brainer. A ditch in front of the school to course water into both side streets of the campus will do it.

Let’s hope the DPW will not wait for a protracted lobbying before getting into gear. Got a pen, will travel!

JAIME R. VERGARA

SVES Teachers’ Rep