ELKVIEW, W.Va. (AP) — A groundbreaking is set in West Virginia for a new high school to replace one destroyed by 2016 floods.
A ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday for the new Herbert Hoover High School in Elkview about 13 miles (21 kilometers) northeast of Charleston. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, state and local education leaders and Herbert Hoover students are planning to attend.
The school is expected to open in fall 2022.
Herbert Hoover students have attended school in portable classrooms near a middle school since the June 2016 floods. The Elk River rose 10 feet high (3 meters high) in some buildings, destroying bridges and ripping homes from their foundations. Six people in Kanawha County died and 23 were killed statewide.
The old high school was torn down last year.
