As Union Intermediate School students stepped off the bus Thursday morning, they were greeted by clapping teachers before they entered the building.
The school was closed for a couple days after a severe Monday storm damaged the school when a roof collapsed over the stage area of the gymnasium. Principal Dondi Hobbs said it was exciting to see the kids back and the moment sparked a positive vibe for the day.
“It fills your heart with such joy and happiness,” Hobbs said. “The building just came back alive when they walked in.”
According to reports from officials, the cause was a microburst — a downdraft with high wind speeds within a thunderstorm. The incident sent three students to the hospital for minor injuries.
Tanya Robinson-Freeman, health and physical education leader, was teaching a class in the gym when it began to rain hard. The class just finished doing stretches and warmups near the stage to prepare for a basketball lesson.
“I asked them to get their basketballs and spread out on the gym floor,” she said. “We had just got up and moved into our activity.”
It wasn’t too much longer than that when the roof started to peel off.
“It took me a second to think about what was going on and when I started to see the ceiling start to fold,” she said. “My mind caught up to what was going on and that’s when I told the kids to start running.
“In actuality, after talking to a few of the students, a few of them were by the entrance door and one of the girls told me that the actually saw pieces of things flying,” she said. “There were some kids behind me and some that were closer than the door than I was. When I started to yell run, they were well ahead of me.”
The incident was captured on video and shared by many media outlets on Facebook. Robinson-Freeman said watching makes her sick to her stomach.
“It was a lot to observe at the time and it still is,” she said. “I know things could have been a lot worse, had we been sitting there doing our stretches, warm ups and other things.
Robinson-Freeman said many people are calling her a hero, but she said that’s not the case.
“I didn’t do anything different that any responsible adult, teacher, or staff member would have done and that’s to get those kids out as quickly and safely as possible,” she said. “I’m no hero, God just put me in that place at that time.”
Hobbs is feeling thankful at the point in the process and expressed her gratitude for the students, staff, parents and the quick response of emergency officials such as the Taylors Bridge Fire Department.
“They are such a strong fire department,” Hobbs said. “They are so well organized and worked so well anytime I’ve had connection with them.”
Hobbs also thanked the Sampson County Sheriff’s Department, Emergency Management and the troopers from the North Carolina Highway Patrol, who helped students get to cars safely during the Monday incident. The school was closed Tuesday, but teachers were allowed to come back Wednesday. After the return, Hobbs said the teachers were able to process the situation.
“We haven’t had an event like this to happen, weather related to a school building with kids here,” Hobbs said. “That was something different for the staff. We’re thankful and appreciative to each other and helping each other out, knowing we got each other’s back and building ourselves as a team. I always felt like we were a family here, but it feels like we’re so much more glued together. No matter where we go in the future, we’re going to be glued together as a staff.”
Mark Hammond, executive director of auxiliary services for Sampson County Schools, said the district is making progress with the recovery. With the assistance of Belfore Property Restoration, the district is building a temporary wall for structural support on the backside of the gym. The area is also being prepared for demolition on the exterior wall. Hammond hopes to have the demolition and the emergency services completed by the end of next week. Next, the process will continue with engineering drawing, inspections and other procedures to start looking for contractors to rebuild the gym. At the moment, the cost of the work is unknown.
“We’re working closely with the (North Carolina Department of Instruction), the insurance company, their engineers,” Hammond reported. “As far as rough cost estimates, it’s too early to tell.”
A large tarp is covering a section of the building to protect old electrical panels.
“They probably been here since the building was built,” Hammond said. The problem is that there’s a lot of the wire that’s run through a concrete slab. So we’re waiting on engineers on getting us a drawing on rerouting some of that power. But since the roof is open to the elements we got a tarp to try to protect those panels until we can get a better solution for it.”
Hobbs said Hammond and district officials responded quickly for debris removal, which was removed before students returned. A few of the bricks were spared. One is sitting on her desk from a moment she’ll always remember. Along with the gymnasium, Union Intermediate will also have to replace a flagpole damaged when a roof landed on it. Hobbs said some of the bricks from the gym may be used for a future project to replace the flagpole area.
“We’ll see what we can do because the building has a lot of history,” Hobbs said about the building more than 60 year old, collecting many memories from residents.
Union Intermediate Counselor Laura McLamb is also excited to see the students return.
“We have a great staff here,” McLamb said. “We love one another and we love our kids.”
The school is using the hashtag #UISstrong for the recovery, which may take many months. Fundraisers are also in the works. One of the upcoming ones is through the Apex Leadership Company, a character building initiative. A portion of the proceeds will go towards replacing equipment for physical education classes. In the meantime, Robinson-Freeman said she’s going to miss her second home away from home.
“That was my resting place,” she said. “I’m just going to miss it.”
But overall, Robinson-Freeman said it’s good to back and coming back from a nerve-racking experience.
“I don’t want to dwell on that,” she said. “I want to move to a spirit of thankfulness and gratitude. Every one of us lived to see another day and to tell our story. I’m thankful that things are not as bad as they could have been. I lost the gym and my equipment. My things that I worked so hard to write grants so kids can have a variety of things to use in a gym setting. Those things are gone, but you can’t replace a life.”
Like Hobbs, Robinson-Freeman was happy to see students return to classrooms. To them, they were very brave.
“We clapped them in this morning because they’re really the heroes,” Hobbs said about building the applause wall. “They’re the ones who sprang into action to get safe.”
