Watch CBS News

Flooding Causes Heavy Damage At Littleton School

LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) - Floodwaters caused problems in several areas south of Denver Thursday night, including at the Collegiate Academy of Colorado in Littleton where officials had to cancel school.

Storm Damage
(credit: CBS)

Instead of being filled with students on Friday, the public charter K-12 school was full of employees and hired crews trying to clean things up.

Many ceiling tiles were damaged by the strong surge of water from the storm, as well as boxes of new textbooks. Carpets were also soaked.

Principal Chris Becker told CBS4 that when he came by the school Thursday night there was about an inch of standing water in one classroom.

"We had some coming in through the ceiling and through the foundation. A lot of the high school was under water and there were a lot of leaks on the elementary side as well," Becker said.

On Thursday night about 50 people, including some students, helped out with the initial cleanup.

So far it's not clear how much it will cost to fix all the damage at the school.

In a different part of Littleton on Thursday night hail piled up waist deep on the road and temporarily trapped a teen driver. And in the Colorado Springs area several roads were closed for several hours Thursday night.

The rain in Denver on Thursday set a record for the Denver area, according to the National Weather Service. The previous highest precipitation total on Aug. 22 was .75 inches, set in 1953. On Thursday 1.94 inches of rain officially fell.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.