RAINS FORCE SCHOOL CLOSURE

Dr. Tom McInroy

River Road in Antis Township is one of several roads in the district to flood thanks to rains from oncoming Hurricane Florence.

Malia Danish, Caroline Nagle, and Maria Cuevas
September 10, 2018

The Bellwood-Antis School District announced an early dismissal on Monday following a two-hour delay because of heavy rains.

At noon,  Bellwood is being dismissed.  This morning around 6:00 a.m., buildings and grounds supervisor Tom Kovac made the call for the two-hour delay.

“We talked to people in Antis Township and decided we would wait until the sun came up for safety. We didn’t want students driving to school in the dark in this weather,” said Bellwood-Antis Superintendent Dr. Tom McInroy.

At about 10 a.m., Mr. Kovac and Dr. McInroy drove many of the roads in the district and saw complete flooding on several of them. They made contact with Raystown transit, which provides busing for the district, and Raystown said that if the district waited any longer than two hours to dismiss, it would be unsafe to transport student home.

The official announcement for a dismissal was made at 11:05.

“The lower areas were definitely starting to fill this morning, and the roads were awful,” said senior Caden Nagle. “I’m going to drive home slower than usual.”

Flooding has closed dozen of roadways in Blair County, some of which are in BASD.. For example, River Road is completely flooded, as seen in the feature image accompanying this article. At least one road in the school district is closed: Route 4018 (Sabbath Rest Road/Lower Riggles Gap Road) from the intersection of Old Sixth Avenue Road to the intersection of Antis Road in Antis Township.

Overrun roads in the surrounding areas have affected the everyday lives of the people in central PA. The Tyrone Area School District dismissed early, as well as Hollidaysburg and Claysburg-Kimmel in Blair County.

The torrential rain is the result of Tropical Storm Gordon, which made landfall in Alabama and Mississippi last week.

More rain is in the forecast over the next week  as Hurricane Florence is predicted to hit the U.S. within the next three to four days.  The National Hurricane Center is forecasting Florence to be a major hurricane (Category 3 or 4) when it arrives at the Southeast coast Thursday.

Hurricane Florence is predicted to cause heavy rain along the coast.

The rains connected with Gordon began on Saturday and have continued non-stop ever since.