Heavy rain causes damage to Lynnwood High gym

There are fans inside Lynnwood High School’s gymnasium, but not the kind one would expect.

These fans are being used to dry out the school’s gym floor, which encountered water damage recently due to severe rains that hit the area.

The gymnasium will be unusable for at least “an estimated first two months of school,” Lynnwood principal David Golden said.

The school grounds are at the bottom of a hill. Dry weather during the spring and summer along with new housing developments above the school resulted in a lack of absorption from the land above Lynnwood High, which led to flooding of the gymnasium, Golden said.

This isn’t the first time the gym has flooded.

“During the snowstorm in ‘96, the gym flooded and the entire thing had to be replaced,” Golden said. “We don’t want to have to do this again.”

Lynnwood High director of maintenance Jerry Saulter said, “Our goal is to try to get programs in school back in operations as soon as possible.”

The Lynnwood volleyball team and all physical education classes will be temporarily relocated when school starts next week. The volleyball team will begin practicing 20 minutes away at the former Edmonds-Woodway High School gym.

“We’re going to be practicing and playing in facilities we don’t know,” Lynnwood volleyball coach Jean Kellogg said. “Our biggest disadvantage will be losing the community support that we have in our home gym.”

Kellogg said other concerns are with the players losing time on studies because of the extended commute. It’s still uncertain how long the changes for players, parents and fans will last.

“Right now, it’s impossible to tell how long this will take,” Saulter said. “There is no way to tell how much water got in and where it went. We can’t dry (the floor) too quickly because it could crack.”

Over the past 30 years, the school has had to deal with the threat of water damage.

“Water constantly runs under the school, but it wants to run over our heads,” Golden said. “We have three pumps in the school that work 24/7 in order to try to keep the school dry.

“This is just one of many illustrations that the building is really deteriorating in terms of infrastructure. It’s reached the end of its 30-year maximum design life.”