The epic April 29 rainstorm is going to cost the Escambia County School District about $2 million in damage to buildings and facilities, said Superintendent Malcolm Thomas.

Holm Elementary School on Lanier Drive got the worst of it; 20 inches of water in the two main buildings. Worse, the water had contaminants in it from a filling station near there.

“We’re still in restoration and demolition mode there,” Thomas says. “Then will come construction.”

Holm students will be in a wing of Workman Middle School for the last 17 days of the school year.

“We took over eight classrooms and every available space there was and turned it into multiple classrooms -- the cafeteria, the music room, the art room,” Thomas says.

It’s not ideal, but it will do until the end of the school year.

“Those parents needed those children to go back to school so they could go back to work,” Thomas says.

About six or seven other schools had damage in at least two or three classrooms, but as long as the water stayed under 4 inches, Thomas says, “you can usually dry it out. You may have to replace carpet.”

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