Copper thieves strike local high school making flooding worse; MSD keeps an eye on weather

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - The non-stop rain has been a rude awakening for some in our area. We've broken the record for the wettest year in Louisville and two Kentuckiana schools are dealing with Mother Nature's downpour.

All this rain turned out to be a big headache for Principal Brad Weston at Fairdale High School.

"We first noticed this morning when we came in there was water on the floor of several rooms," said Weston.

The reason..Weston says someone over the weekend stole over 500 feet of copper guttering from the schools roof. The water is sheeting down the side of the building, causing it to leak inside the classrooms.

"It's quite a job," said Weston. "They took the flashing behind the gutter which caused damage to the roof now we have exposed wood that is causing water to go down through the walls."

Effecting 20 classrooms and causing at least $20,000 in damage.

"We are having to mop water off the floor and keep buckets in the classrooms," said Weston.

Across the river at Charlestown High School, assistant principal John Rowland is also dealing with the downpour. A roof drain somehow shifted, causing water to pour in.

"That allowed the rain water from the roof to enter one classroom and had about an inch of water in the classroom," said Rowland. "Just enough to do quite a bit of damage to the hall and joining classroom and media center."

With rain continuing to pour down, the Metropolitan Sewer District says they'll be monitoring the situation closely.

At Goose Creek, the water is high. MSD has 350 sanitary sewer pumping stations. When it rains this much, they can become overloaded so MSD said they have to pump with a tanker truck to prevent waste water from backing up in people's basements.

This is also the wettest year on record in Louisville.

"We've spent almost two million dollars in extra electric to run flood pumping plants," said Bud Schardein, executive director of MSD.

For now, two of MSD's extra pumping stations are in use. More could be turned on as we get more rain. Schardein is urging people to be careful on bridge crossings and not to drive through high water.

Shcardein says to help with flooding, hold off running your dishwasher or doing a load of laundry for the next two days. Fifty extra gallons of water goes into the sewer system with a load of laundry.

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