Cameron Stadium cleanup continues after flash flood
Washington & Jefferson’s football game Saturday was one of the shortest in its long and storied history, but anybody who stayed to its end, at halftime, will remember the scene for a long time.
The Presidents’ game against Keystone was called at halftime with W&J leading 42-0. That was nothing more than a mere footnote.
A torrential downpour that hit Washington at halftime caused flash flooding that led to the evacuation of Cameron Stadium. Players, coaches, officials and fans were helped out of the stadium in water that was knee-to-shin deep.
“It wasn’t ideal,” W&J athletic director Scott McGuinness said.
Ongoing construction at the flood-prone area of Park Avenue that runs along the entrance of the stadium made the evacuation a challenge.
“We got people out of the stadium. Our campus public safety did a great job getting everybody out. It was challenging because nobody could go left because of the construction,” McGuinness pointed out. “Keystone’s buses had to go up the hill to Trinity (High School) and the players walked up to there, some still in their uniform. But because there were so many roads in town that were closed, it took Keystone’s buses 45 minutes to get from Trinity to our campus so the players could shower.”
Meanwhile, inside the stadium, water was making the playing field look like a lake and the floodwaters were rising in the locker rooms.
“At the flag pole end of the stadium, the one along Catfish Creek, you could see a current coming from there into the stadium, across the track and onto the field,” McGuinness recalled. “It carried equipment toward the other end of the field.
“The water started going into the locker rooms while the whole teams were in there at halftime. It was shin-deep in the locker rooms and trainer’s room.”
The first half of the game was played without a drop of rain falling, McGuinness said. It wasn’t long after halftime began that the rain started.
“Our band started to play at halftime and then the rain came,” McGuinnes said. “We had been monitoring the lightning. We had a soccer game at Alexandre Stadium across town and they had a lightning delay there about eight minutes before we had any lighting. When we got lightning, we kept pushing the start of the second half back 30 minutes. The coaches and officials agreed that it doesn’t make sense to go back out, warm up for five minutes and then have to go back inside because of lightning. By the 10th lightning delay the rain really came down.”
W&J officials are still assessing the water damage, but the synthetic turf playing surface appears to have survived somewhat intact.
“We’re still trying to assess the damage,” McGuinness said. “The field visually looks good, but a turf company is coming in (Tuesday) to look at it and give us some recommendations on cleaning and disinfecting. We’re not going on the field until we know it’s safe. There was no accordion effect. It looked like the turf might have bubbled up in spots, but I’m not really sure about that.”
The W&J football team has an open date this weekend and does not have a home game until Oct. 3 against Geneva. The Presidents practiced MOnday at W&J’s soccer field.
The Presidents’ field hockey team, which plays at Cameron Stadium, has home conference matches scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
“We’re looking at other options, local high schools and other colleges that could host field hockey if we can’t play at Cameron,” McGuinness said. “We’ll figure it out.
“In my 25 years here, we’ve had some flooding at the stadium, but it was always from a rainstorm in the summer. It was never during a practice or a game, and there was never anyone inside to witness it.”