GARLAND COUNTY, Ark. — Like many across Arkansas, the Cutter Morning Star School District (CMSSD) did what it could to prepare for last week's frigid weather.
“By leaving water running, turning up the heat opening the cabinets, like under the sinks and stuff so heat could get to them," CMSSD Superintendent Nancy Anderson said. "Really prepping our buildings."
Anderson said the school district's maintenance team has spent the past few days fixing problems caused by the low temperatures.
“When we came up to check on things... when things are still frozen, you really don't know where the leaks are because the water is not flowing or moving,” Anderson said.
Anderson said they expected minor damage, but as the days went on, they found even worse.
“As things started to thaw out," Anderson said. "We found various breaks in different pipes throughout the campus, a hot water heater that had busted and then we discovered more damage... We had to turn the water off in a number of buildings, just to fix some of the leaks.”
Luckily for Cutter Morning Star School District, there was no damage to campus classrooms, but the biggest problem happened at a portable building.
“It's our family resource center," Anderson said. "There were pipes that had burst that have a restroom in there, obviously, and had flooded the floor water in the walls."
Anderson said they still don’t know the extent of the damage, but another problem was discovered at the district’s concession stand and football locker room.
“The concession stand you have water, but you also have two restrooms and so all of that has busted," Anderson said. "Then in the very back are locker rooms for football and they had showers and so there was a lot of plumbing in that building."
Maintenance plans to continue working around the clock making sure that everything is good to go and the district can welcome students back on Tuesday.