As wildfires rip through the western half of the country, affecting air quality and impacting athletics practices and games, other parts of the United States have recently seen significant flooding, which has had its own dire consequences for some facilities.
In North Carolina, Pisgah High School’s Memorial Stadium, as well as the school’s baseball and softball fields, were all fully submerged after rain from tropical storm Fred caused the Pigeon River to overflow.
“This storm seemed a little bit different, a little bit more powerful,” Pisgah athletics director Heidi Morgan told The Mountaineer Wednesday morning. “The damage is completely different in some areas and the same in others.”
Morgan said the water in the football stadium reached as high as the crossbar on the goalposts 10 feet above the turf. The flooding ripped the costly new turf that was installed in 2020 off the ground one side of the field.
“All the fences are completely down,” Morgan said. “Concession stands, halftime rooms, all those things were completely underwater and are now in shambles.”
Morgan said the softball and baseball fields are total losses.
There’s debris from the neighborhoods everywhere,” Morgan said. “All of the infield dirt has been removed.”
Further south, torrential rains hit the University of Texas in Austin, flooding the school’s Gregory Gym.
Videos of the flooding surfaced on social media, showing water rushing from the floor into the gym lobby.
Pool party at Greg’s pic.twitter.com/kD2otKfD4z
— Jonathan Sherchand (@JSherchand) August 15, 2021
