Flooding in the courtyard of Pine Bluff High School’s temporary campus led to flooding of the hallways Friday morning, forcing school officials to cancel classes for the day.
The cancellation did not impact other campuses in the Pine Bluff School District.
Custodians at the former Jack Robey Junior High School spent Friday morning mopping up the water, which also reached into some classrooms as well as the school cafeteria. The Robey campus, which had closed in 2023 after 37 years in operation, reopened for grades 10-12 last July while construction of a new Pine Bluff High School at its original West 11th Avenue location is ongoing. The new high school is expected to open in the summer of 2026.
An area where an on-campus bank is soon to be established at the Robey campus also saw water on the floor.
At least a half-inch of water got inside the campus, with the courtyard sustaining up to 2 inches of water, said PBSD Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree. She said custodians would have the area cleaned up by the afternoon and the school would be ready to reopen Monday.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
High school Principal Ronald Laurent showed where the drain in the middle of the courtyard was full and led to filling the area with water. The courtyard is enclosed by hallways.
“Through the various places where the water can come in, the doors, any cracks that might be in it, water will seep up,” Laurent said. “If that drain has debris and stuff from fallen leaves and other things have packed in so the water cannot go through, what does it do? It just fills up.”
Cafeteria staff members who were the first to arrive on campus noticed the flooding and reached out to the district’s maintenance and operations department, Laurent said. An attendance officer who was the first to arrive on campus Friday morning called Laurent once she noticed the damage.
“The maintenance crew put all hands on deck,” he said. “They’re doing a good job of getting the water up.”
Some students had already arrived on campus well before the 8:30 a.m. first bell, Laurent said. He added that the students would be sent to the gym until officials decided what to do with the school day. Since Wednesday, Pine Bluff has endured off-and-on rainfall along a frontal boundary that has stretched from the southwest to northeast corners of Arkansas. The frontal boundary produced confirmed tornadoes in Lake City in Craighead County and Almyra in Arkansas County.
From Wednesday to 4 p.m. Friday, only 3.65 inches of rain fell in Pine Bluff, according to data from the National Weather Service, despite an active flood watch through 7 a.m. Sunday.
A 60% to 70% chance of severe thunderstorms was forecast for Friday evening, with an 80% to 100% chance of heavy rain for Saturday. Highs have reached into the 80s in recent days, but a cold front by Sunday is expected to calm storms and leave a high of just 53 with a low of 39.
Areas under a flood watch were expected to see 6-10 inches of rain this week with “isolated pockets” of 12-15 inches possible, according to earlier forecasts.
Pine Bluff still sees a high risk of the Arkansas River reaching flood stages. The river is expected to rise into the action flood stage of 40 feet by Sunday morning and top at 44 feet by Tuesday, right at the moderate stage but just a foot shy of major flooding, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“We have many support systems out there if there’s anybody who needs help,” Barbaree said when asked about support the district can provide to students who may be affected by the flooding. “We have social worker Shun Jackson that helps make sure students have what they need, a place to stay. If there is a problem, they need to contact us, for sure.”
Pine Bluff police said in an email that it does not have equipment to conduct high-water rescues.
“We can’t stress enough the importance of your safety during this time,” the email reads. “You can’t tell how deep the water is, especially when it is dark.”
