On Thursday March 6, Elm Street School fourth through sixth graders had to evacuate their wing on the left side of the school. They had to evacuate because the snow on the roof was too heavy and the walls started to crack. The supporting beam was starting to bow. The art room and the gymnasium could still be used, but anything past that could not.

They had to use some rooms in the seventh and eighth grade wing, the first through third grade wing, the library, the art room,the conference room and the gymnasium. Even though fourth through eighth graders were crammed together, the Maine Educational Assessments still had to go on.

The Minot and Mechanic Falls fire departments came and started to shovel off the roof along with some volunteers from Mechanic Falls. These volunteers worked from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Gary, one of the janitors, worked all night to get more of it done. When the volunteers came back on Saturday, Minot brought their fire truck and hosed off the other half of the roof so the fourth through sixth graders could be back in their rooms by Monday. Then Mrs. Martin had an engineer come to the school to check the roof and the foundation to make sure it was safe for the students to come back, and it was.