Virginia community reflects on earthquake 10 years later

MINERAL, Virginia (AP) – A decade after a massive earthquake rendered Louisa County High School unusable, dozens gathered in front of the reconstructed school Monday for a meditation party.

At 1:51 p.m. on August 23, 2011, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake lasting less than a minute struck Mineral, Louisa, Bombas, and Cuckoo, causing millions of dollars in damage to schools, homes, and businesses. There were no fatalities.

73-year-old Louisa County High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School were badly damaged, resulting in the need for new buildings and months of hard work and work through logistics.

According to the US Geological Survey, the earthquake was the most widespread, stretching from Maine to Georgia and west to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago and southeastern Canada – a vast region home to a third of the US population. Total economic losses from the earthquake were estimated at between $200 million and $300 million.

Despite the hardships Louisa County faced a decade ago, a crowd of dozens seemed elated on Monday as they perched on folding chairs outside high school. Among the crowd were many people who helped the community during that difficult time, said Doug Straley, the superintendent of Louisa County Public Schools.

“It was nothing short of a miracle that no lives were lost, and no serious injuries occurred that day,” said Straly. “Our principals, teachers, and staff helped students out of the building throughout our department, many of whom had to carry and navigate students through collapsed ceilings and exploding pipes.”

Straley said he, and most Louisa County residents, remember that day in vivid detail. Despite this short earthquake, the scale of the damage was felt for several months, he said.

“It became very clear that a miracle had occurred as we walked around the schools that evening to assess the damage,” he said. “The walls have moved more than a foot at Louisa County High School, and many have stated that the decision of the school board and board of supervisors to rebuild one of the walls at the end of the building that was completed a few months before the earthquake likely kept the building from collapsing, possibly saving many lives. “.

In the aftermath of the destruction, an emergency committee was set up to determine what tasks should be addressed, in order to address them, and how to complete them. The school board met on an almost weekly basis to take care of legal and policy issues and get students back into class. County building inspectors and zoning officials worked with schools to meet standards and obtain approvals.

The high school was temporarily set up by officials in middle school while a temporary high school was built on tennis courts and a parking lot at the current school. High school and middle school students rotated days and attended classes on Saturdays for several months before the temporary school was ready. A module school was established at Trevilians Elementary School for displaced students by Thomas Jefferson.

In October 2012, the original portion of the high school, built in 1939, collapsed, making way for a new $42.9 million high school, which officially opened in 2015.

Louisa County Administrator Christian Goodwin said failure was never an option, citing Newt Gingrich’s comment about perseverance.

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you have already done,” he said. “And if that doesn’t describe what happened in this county after the earthquake, I don’t know what is going on.”

Alexis Downey, a freshman at Louisa High School, said she was in second grade when the quake struck. On the playground at the time, she said her first thought was that the world was about to end. However, Downey said the tough time resulted in her and her colleagues gaining access to more resources.

“We have a state-of-the-art high school with a great auditorium and gymnasium, and classrooms with everything we need in a[vocational and technical education]program that provides industry-like experiences for students to get a job straight from the high school,” she said. “I knew the day I entered,” she said. It’s my second-grade class at Mobile Mountain on the soccer field at Trevilians Elementary after less than a month that nothing could stop Louisa County.”

Monday’s ceremony ended with a tree planting. Straley encouraged everyone involved in the ordeal a decade ago to shovel dirt on the tree as a symbol of unity, growth, determination and hope.

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