Beaufort Co. school internet down, likely through Friday, from data center flood

Beaufort County School District turned off the internet on its 30 schools today, following a “substantial water breach” in the district office’s data center, spokesman Jim Foster confirmed Thursday.

The outage, caused by a clogged drain that sent water flooding into the data room below it during Thursday morning’s rainstorm, will last all day Thursday and likely through Friday, Foster said.

The district will need to fix the drainage system before turning the power to the data center back on due to a “risk of electrical shock for anyone going in,” Foster said.

Schools will remain on a regular schedule today, and the district’s main phone lines, utilities and electronic card system are still on, Foster said.

He said teachers are “adjusting their instruction” around the outage, and that students can still use their devices as word processors or for local files, such as PowerPoint presentations, but not for online tasks.

Rachel Jones

The Island Packet

843-631-6039

Rachel Jones covers education for the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has worked for the Daily Tar Heel and Charlotte Observer. She has won awards from the South Carolina Press Association, Associated College Press and North Carolina College Media Association for feature writing and education reporting.