Single-digit temperatures over the course of the past week and a half led to a water pipe to rupture in the ceiling in front of the ticket booth outside of the auditorium on Tuesday, Jan. 2. And if not for the quick response from the custodian staff, the damage would be more extensive. 

“Fire alarms were going off and we heard on the intercom that there was a water breakage in the auditorium and me and all the other custodians ran down there,” custodian Mike Boswell said.

The pipe broke at around 12:30 p.m. The pipes became very cold, froze and broke as a result of the continuous freezing temperatures. 

The water flowed into the auditorium and was stopped before spreading into the cafeteria. The Wentzville Fire Department was called in and they got into the pipes and essentially plugged up the hole. There was damage done to ceiling tiles and carpeting.

“Our custodial staff, worked extremely fast and diligently to minimize all the damage,”  assistant principal Mr. Kiesel said.  

The repairs to the pipes are going to take longer than originally anticipated.  Therefore, Thursday night’s girls basketball games against Mexico were postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date.

The new auditorium appears to be to only room in the 500 hallway that was affected by the water main break.  All other rooms in the affected hallway, including the theater room and the band room, were spared from any damage that could have been caused by the flood of water.

“The school did a really good job of accommodating us with the move to the library,” theater teacher Mrs. Willis said. “So yesterday (Thursday), the only thing that really affected us was that we had to move out of the classroom due to the fire alarms having to be disabled down here, but everyone was really accommodating.”

Students and teachers were thankful that the biggest problem they encountered was moving out of their classroom.  Nothing in any of the classrooms was damaged since most the water was in the halls and in the auditorium.

“We were very lucky the band room really was not affected in any way,” Mr. O’Donnell said, who is the co-director and teacher of Liberty’s band. “The water that we know of was in the hallway and then in the auditorium itself so nothing was damaged, nothing was messed up in the band room.  We are very lucky.”