Schools in Guilford County, N.C., were closed Monday and will remain closed Tuesday after a powerful tornado struck the area and damaged several schools.
The Greensboro News & Record reports that three schools sustained so much damage that they will remain closed for the rest of the school year. Sixteen schools remained without power Monday afternoon.
The district has more than 73,000 students in 126 schools.
The Guilford County school board voted in an emergency session Monday to relocate students from the three damaged schools to campuses that have additional space.
The affected schools, according to WXII-TV: Hampton Elementary, which has 297 students, will relocate to Reedy Fork Elementary. Reedy Fork has 424 students and has space for 870 students.
Peeler Elementary, which has 291 students, will relocate to Bluford Elementary. Bluford has 276 students and space for 567 students.
Erwin Montessori, which has 252 students, will relocate to Alamance Elementary. It has space for 854 students.
The relocations will be in effect through the end of the academic year.
Hampton Elementary received the most damage, says Guilford County Schools Chief Operating Officer Scott McCully. Behind the school, what used to be a few mobile unit classrooms are now a pile of debris. The high branches of trees behind the school were strewn with bright yellow insulation materials.
Big evergreens were down in front of the school, and a metal walkway covering had twisted. The roof was still on the school, but looked damaged. Roofing material and other debris lay everywhere. A piece of metal wrapped around a power line as if it were fabric.
"I've been in just a partial part of the building, just in the entryway," McCully says. "Quite a bit of broken glass, a lot of furniture moved around, some water damage as well, so we've got a pretty extensive cleanup at this school."
