Video shows flash flood gushing into southern Indiana school

DUBOIS, Ind. (WISH) — Students at one southern Indiana middle school had four days of e-learning after a flash flood damaged the facility, and now everyone can see how the floodwaters inundated the building just before the Labor Day weekend.

On Wednesday, the district released video from surveillance cameras and showed just how badly the floodwaters swept through Northeast Dubois Intermediate School on Aug. 30. The school sits a couple thousand feet south of the Patoka River, and has about 280 students.

The video, which has no sound, first shows water gathering at the baseball field and adjacent basketball courts, located just east of the school.

Next on the video, a door breaks, flooding the kitchen and knocking over a refrigerator used to display food. From the kitchen and the basement, the water flows into the cafeteria, nearly reaching tabletops.

The most dramatic portion of the video may be the water flooding the basement, called a “reading lounge” in the video. First, according to the video, a door broke before a gushing wave comes into the basement. Next, the wave extends into a wall adjacent to the door. Water keeps going into the basement until it reaches the ceiling.

When the basement doors were opened, allowing water to escape, it rushed into a hallway, nearly reaching electrical outlets. Much the water exited the building through doors to the foyer for an elevator.

The gymnasium will not reopen this school year because the floor and structure beneath it were so badly damaged, said the superintendent of Northeast Dubois County School Corp. in a letter on Facebook. The district did not give any information on Facebook about the total cost of the damage to the school, although it’s noted an insurance company has been involved in decisions with the repair of the gym.

Students had e-learning from Aug. 31-Sept. 3.

Dubois is an unincorporated community about 80 miles southwest of Indianapolis.