Inside King's-Edgehill School
Dear KES Family:
Sustained winds over 80kph and gusts up to 170kph whipped through Nova Scotia last night. By 11:00pm the temperature reading on my back door thermometer was 12 degrees (warmer than it was in Florida!). Rivers of rainwater and snow melt flooded the storm drains by the Chapel and flowed unabated down Front Hill. Alarms sounded throughout the night as the power failed, was restored and failed again. As the wind’s incessant roar kept me awake through the wee hours of this morning, I wondered what damage daylight would expose on campus. Lying in bed I could hear the ancient bones of Alexandra Hall bend and creak with each gust, and the water in the third floor toilet slosh from side to side.
Amazingly, by breakfast time power and heat were on and high spirits greeted students and staff in the Dining Hall. For the second straight day we are likely the only school operating classes-as-normal in the province. The staff are all here and that holiday afterglow is still present. The snow may have disappeared overnight, and we may have lost some roofing shingles, branches from trees, and a little sleep, but we have been very fortunate to weather the storm as we have. We know that others have not fared as well.
It is both a small and a big thing. How a community deals with adversity says a lot about its character. As always, I am impressed by and grateful for the resilient and hardy KES spirit. It is as strong as ever and will see us through 2018 no matter what storms may blow.