SELWYN College in West Guadalcanal was hit by another flash flood for the second time in a month following continuous heavy rain over the last few days.
The school’s chaplain Fr. John Roroi told the Solomon Star last night that the school was forced to call off its classes after break time yesterday after floodwaters started overflowing into the school campus.
“It was about 10:15 am that we started to notice the flood water entering our school campus so we decided to call off classes and evacuate the students to higher grounds within the campus,” he said.
Fr. Roroi said that as the rain continues the flooding continues to become stronger at around 2 pm in the afternoon.
“The flooding got worse at around 2 pm especially from the back of the boy’s dormitory and logs carried by the flood blocked the access roads through the staff houses.
“The girls were evacuated to the newly built girl’s high dormitory and the boys were evacuated to the classrooms while the staff and their families were evacuated to the library,” he said.
Fr. Roroi said an attempt by the school truck to travel over to Honiara yesterday was unsuccessful after the bridge at Sasa hill was washed away around 12pm.
“I know that the parents are concern about the safety of their children but we are doing what we can with the authority and make arrangements for the evacuation of the students tomorrow (today),” he said.
Fr. Roroi said the school is now without electricity since their solar panels cannot be charged because of the continuous raining over the past two days and they cannot buy fuel for their standby generator since the bridge has collapsed.
“Tonight (last night) the school is in darkness. Our staff and senior students will be monitoring the situation within the school campus.”
The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM) operated school was temporarily closed down early February from similar flooding.
At that time, students were evacuated back to Honiara.
By BRYAN LUVENA
