PORT ORFORD — Officials at Driftwood School had expected Tuesday to be busy this year. The Port Orford-Langlois School District decided last year to close its elementary school in Langlois. So instead of about 90 students, the K-8 school in Port Orford would serve about 190, said Principal Sean Wells.

Instead, the Port Orford school didn’t have a single one Tuesday.

Taking their place were fans and workers from the Coos Bay branch of Belfor Property Restoration, a company specializing in flood damage restoration.

School officials have pushed back the start of school until Monday because a broken water pipe dumped about 40,000 gallons of water into the school, said Superintendent Mick Lane.

A custodian showed up to work Friday morning to find 3 inches of standing water in the school’s hallways, Wells said.

“It was pretty bad,” he said.

Workers were tearing up floor tiles Tuesday, which were damaged from sitting in water for several hours. They also had dehumidifiers and fans humming to dry out the building.

School officials had hoped dry out the school in time to open it Thursday, but they decided Tuesday afternoon that it would be best to wait until next week.

“It’s been delayed because we aren’t getting dry as fast as we wanted,” Lane said.

Officials don’t expect the school to be completely dry Monday, but they plan to put classes in the gym, cafeteria and library so school can start. The areas that haven’t been dried out will be blocked off so children aren’t potentially exposed to mold.

“Any areas that are even at a remote risk of being contaminated are sealed off,” Lane said. “The building will be safe.”

The district has insurance, which will pay for the repairs. The school had undergone significant upgrades, including a remodeled gym, new storage space, remodeled  playground, as well as new heating and lighting.

The upgrades had included repairs to water pipes, including the one that broke, Lane said.

It ran above the school’s computer lab and a classroom.

“We are going to decommission that line and run a new main line to go through the school to avoid further problems,” Lane said.

Lane said it would be a while before he knew how much the damage would cost the district. Teachers were going through their rooms Tuesday making lists of destroyed property. Among them were a couple boxes of text books that hadn’t been put on shelves, as well as some computer monitors.

But the damage could have been worse if the pipe had burst the day before, when teachers were still preparing their rooms, said Wells. Many rooms had supplies in boxes scattered about. But by Friday, most materials were off the floor and safe from the spreading water.

The damage in the computer lab was limited, too, as the district’s IT person hadn’t set up computers. He was scheduled to do that Saturday. And although water got several feet into the school library, it stayed away from the book stacks.

Lane said the district is in good shape in terms of school days, so he isn’t planning to schedule any makeup days.