Gold Coast school St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary faces lengthy clean-up after heavy storm damage

A Gold Coast school is facing a major clean-up job after yesterday’s flash floods saw a ‘massive amount of water’ enter several rooms.

A GOLD Coast primary school has begun a lengthy clean-up after last night’s wild weather, just hours after parents finished a working bee.

Several areas of St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School, including the library, staffroom and technology room, have been left with severe water damage.

Parents and staff had spent several hours yesterday clearing the Runaway Bay school’s playground of debris and water.

Several areas in the school have been left filled with puddles of water. Photo: Supplied

HOW MUCH RAIN FELL ON COAST

Principal Kathy Fuller said several parents had come along to clear drains and sweep out the playground, but their work had been “compounded” overnight.

“We believe what’s happened is the drains out on the street all became clogged and then back washed into the school,” she said.

“So it’s come from out on the street and into places like the library internally. Externally there’s a fair bit of damage as well.”

Many of the school’s resources including books and furniture, as well as the walls of each room, were damaged.

Debris has flooded into the playground. Photo: Supplied

Though classes weren’t interrupted the library and technology rooms are currently unusable, and may remain that way for the next week.

“We’re just waiting for the insurance assessors to come and check it all out for us, and then it will be a matter of replacing it,” Ms Fuller said.

“We’ve already extracted a massive amount of water from the internal spaces … the carpet will hopefully be dry by the end of the week, we’ve hired some industrial fans to try and dry it out as much as possible.”

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