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Water Woes Close Carbondale Schools

CARBONDALE — Water problems at a school in Lackawanna County cancelled classes for a second day. All Carbondale Area schools closed Wednesday morning afte...

CARBONDALE -- Water problems at a school in Lackawanna County cancelled classes for a second day.

All Carbondale Area schools closed Wednesday morning after a water line broke Tuesday night, flooding some of the high school.

Carbondale Junior-Senior High School had a water main break Monday that cancelled classes at all Carbondale schools on Tuesday. Then after they got that fixed, another break happened in the same area, leading to canceled classes again on Wednesday.

School officials say all this cold is to blame.

As a crew finished the repairs on the broken water main heading into Carbondale Area Junior Senior High School, school officials were hoping this would be the last consequence of the cold here.

"What's happening here has been happening all over the area. There's nothing you can do, the frost line is 24 inches into the ground," said Carbondale Area business manager Dave Cerra.

The first water main break was Monday night, hours after workers fixed that Tuesday, there was another break in the same area and it was even worse.

You can still see some of the mud after the water flooded the boiler room. Maintenance staff members were able to get the water off before it went any higher and caused millions of dollars in damage.

School staffers say the water came rushing into the boiler room in the basement leaving a mess behind. Water poured out above ground, too. A lot of ice is left from that.

There's evidence inside this school lobby of water that came gushing in there, too. Fortunately it stopped just before the gym.

"Had it not been for Jeff and Scott hurrying up to get the secondary main off, we would have lost the building. We would have had millions of dollars in damage and probably would have been looking for another school to finish out the year."

"It's been cold and then the snow and now the water main break."

For Evelyn Scott and her daughter, it meant two more days off. Carbondale Area schools have had nearly a dozen snow days.

"It's crazy, absolutely. They're going to be going school up until July if they keep going the way they're going," Scott said.

While we were there, water pressure to the high school was restored as an anxious administrator watched.

"Hopefully that wouldn't happen again and we can breathe easier," Cerra said.

The school's business manager says the district will ask the state for an exemption from the 180 day rule because of the pipe problems, so the last two days wouldn't have to be made up.

There will be a two-hour delay on Thursday in Carbondale as a precaution, according to the superintendent.

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