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Exchange All Age School damaged by freak storm

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Ricardo Moncrieffe, Principal of Exchange All Age School
By Kimone Witter    
 
It is hoped that electricity will be restored at Exchange All Age School in St. Ann by Monday following the suspension of classes earlier this week due to a freak storm.
 
During heavy showers and strong winds on Wednesday, uprooted trees fell on power lines leading to the school, and the roof of a building on the Grade 2 block was blown off.
 
The contents of the building, that served as a resource centre and store room, are exposed to the elements.
 
Ricardo Moncrieffe, Principal of Exchange All Age, says a preliminary assessment of the damage has been done. 
 
"The electrician and the carpenter came in and did their assessment so we are waiting for some estimate of the damages. Cleaning up activities continue today and we are waiting to do some initial repairs to the building to ensure that we return to some level of normalcy by Monday," he told Radio Jamaica News. 
 
Mr. Moncrieffe said a team from the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is to return to the school to replace the damaged power lines.
 
"They did come on Wednesday but thought more or less that the damages that we had experienced was more to the school, but then the power line that came from the JPS source, that was severely burnt, so we have made calls to them to come and disconnect so that we can do the repairs on the building and have them reconnecting their services."  
 
The principal said political representatives have offered their assistance to offset the cost of repairs, while the final estimate of damage will be sent to the Ministry of Education.
 
According to Mr. Moncrieffe, counselling was offered to students who were traumatised by the freak storm.


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