by Krystal Paco

Guam - The wet weather also had an impact on the island's schools, as Department of Education officials rushed to clean up so that students would not have to miss a day of class. While the rest of island was underwater, the Friendly Fanihis of D.L. Perez Elementary School sincerely asked assistant principal Mike Perez if they could go swimming on their Yigo campus.

At the start of school this morning, the hallways gushed with water and the school yard suddenly had a vast pond due to blocked stormed drains. "This morning we did have an issue with flooding, as we know it's been raining since early this morning and as a result we've had flooding on the upper portion of our campus," Perez explained. "The portion of our campus at the top level was under twelve inches of water."

Fortunately for students, water didn't get the chance to flood classrooms because Perez immediately called the Department of Education maintenance crew who began working on clearing the debris clogging the storm drains. "Before the maintenance crew got here the water was going up to many of the doors of the upper level classrooms," he added.

It soon became apparent that underground cables were also submerged and reason for concern. The Guam Power Authority responded by shutting down the school's power for 30 minutes. "There was a concern of course because of the underground cables we wanted to ensure that none of our electrical systems got shorted because of the water so to ensure our air conditioning units continued to run properly and we didn't blow our any breakers what have you we did shut down the power," Perez said.

With the storm drains cleared and the dying rains, classes resumed back to normal. "Thanks to the department for working together especially with GPA, and as a result we have a complete school day," Perez stated.