Final cost of tornado repairs still a moving target for Jessieville
JESSIEVILLE — While insurance estimates hover around the initial-projected $1.5 to $2 million range, Jessieville School District Superintendent Melissa Speers said monetary damages sustained from the Jan. 2 tornado will likely be an ongoing process.
On Thursday — nine weeks to the day after winds of up to 102 mph swept through campus, causing damage to parts of the elementary school, band building, and most notably Don Phillips Field — she said assessments had been performed, but due to fluctuating construction costs, final figures would not be known until the completion of the repairs.
“We already know when you go back in and you look at actual costs of replacing or repairing, they’re higher,” she said. “So they will go back in and adjust those figures once we have accurate (results), and we already know it’s probably going to be higher than that.”
Speers said the insurance company sent in an outside consultant, who used computer software, to assess the damage and generate estimated costs, coming to over $1.3 million.
“When you just look at those, we know that building costs are higher. So we already know those are underrepresented on there. And the insurance company is aware of that as well, and that’s what they said. We were finally able to sit down and meet with them and with some of our contractors (Wednesday),” she said.
“Kind of our plan right now is, as we get a firm cost of something, then we reach back out to our insurance adjuster and he says, ‘Yes, let’s go for that.’ Or, ‘Ooh, I don’t know, we may need to sit down and negotiate or talk.’ But our insurance company’s been wonderful to work with.”
After finishing the week using Alternative Methods of Instruction days as cleanup and repairs were performed, students came back to school the following Monday with most repairs done, except for the band building and football field. The band building sits next to the field on the northwest end of campus. Much of the building’s roof was damaged as winds continued across the 50-yard line of the field, snapping three of the four light poles, and damaging the bleachers, scoreboard and concessions area.
Speers said they were doing their final walk-through of the building, which also houses an elementary music class, on Thursday afternoon and noted students should be back in before spring break.
“We have not done anything yet at the football field, that complex,” she said. “That’s been the one that we’ve really needed to wait on insurance so that we knew what was being covered, what wasn’t, and formulate a plan.”
While unsure of a timeline, she said they will have a plan for the field and stadium following the school board meeting on Thursday.
Students in Jessieville’s EAST initiative are developing plans to re-landscape the campus this spring by planting flowers and low-growing shrubs. The Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s Forestry Division recently gave the
district three native trees, two of which were planted in Jessieville Lions Pride Park, and the other in front of the administration building.
Jessieville third-grade students are also ramping up protection for their chickens, which got caught in the tornado as their coop blew away. While all four were fine, it took a few days for the final one to be located and brought back to the school. Speers said the students are looking at prefabricated coops and chicken houses, and talking to somebody about building one.
She said all of the staff and students are doing well following the scare, but last Thursday’s threat of more severe weather took on a more serious tone.
“We had a couple of parents this morning, as they were dropping their kids off through the car-rider line — you know, with the weather that they’re predicting (Thursday night) — they were a little concerned and wanted to know what are we going to do,” she said.
“And it was just kind of coincidental that it happened, but it was also a little bit planned, (Wednesday) we did have a tornado drill so that we practiced sheltering in place, but then we also practiced going to the safe room, just in the event. But we reassured the parents this morning that we are going to take care of them and we are going to keep an eye on the weather and, ‘Here’s what we’ve done, and what we do.’ So it’s just, it’s a little scary for everybody.”
She said while the district closely monitors the weather, they now understand just how quickly circumstances can change without warning.