wfn.org | Tornado tears through Kentucky Wesleyan campus

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Jan. 7, 2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{011}

By Diane Vanderford*

OWENSBORO, Ky. (UMNS) -- Kathryn Farmer, public relations director for
Kentucky Wesleyan College, has lived in Owensboro for 15 years and had never
experienced anything like what happened at 4:10 p.m. Jan. 3.

"I was on the phone when my secretary stepped in and said that there was a
tornado warning and we have to go to the basement," Farmer recalled the next
day. "I hung up on the person I was talking to." 

College administrators and staff who were in the Administration Building
moved quickly to the basement. About 10 minutes later, the electricity went
out. "We could hear the rumble, and it got louder and louder," Farmer said.
"...We knew we had been hit just by the sound that we heard."

The twister tore through the campus of the United Methodist-related school.
National Weather Service officials estimated that the storm packed winds of
180 to 200 miles per hour.

Nearly 800 homes in Owensboro suffered moderate to severe damage, and more
than 100 were destroyed. The storm left some 8,000 homes without power.
However, despite millions of dollars in property damage and the city in a
state of emergency, only 15 people were treated by Owensboro Mercy Health
System and no one was killed.

Preliminary estimates by insurance adjusters put damage to the campus at
$4.5 million to $5 million. A complete assessment of damage would not be
possible until power is restored to the campus, said President Wesley
Poling. Owensboro Municipal Utilities, which sustained an estimated $2
million in damage, is working as quickly as possible to restore electric
service, but officials estimated it will probably be Jan. 8 or 9 before
power is back on campus.

Meantime, as Jan. 4 dawned with overcast skies and light snow flurries,
college employees got their first good look at the ravaged campus. Farmer
said just about every building on campus was affected, with damage ranging
from a fence blown over at the Ralph Center to the destruction of the
president's home, which may be a total loss.

A line of trees with their tops snapped off marked the beginning of the
storm's path across campus as it approached from the southwest. The roof was
ripped off the president's home, exposing the second floor, which was the
primary living area for Wes and Carol Poling. Continuing across the street,
the storm tore a section of roof from Peeple's Hall, a women's dorm, and
flung it into the front of Deacon, the men's residence hall, breaking glass
and damaging three dorm rooms on the first floor. 

The third building to sustain severe damage was President's Hall, which
houses the dining hall on the second floor and the library and computer lab
on the ground floor. Half the roof was ripped off and the cafeteria was
wrecked. The library was more fortunate, but some documents were damaged. By
midweek, a library specialist was on campus assessing the damage and
formulating a plan to dry out and save as much of the damaged materials as
possible. The computers were moved into safe storage and officials think the
computer lab will be fine -- although it is impossible to be certain until
electricity is restored.

The brick marquee facing the main thoroughfare at the entrance of the
college is blown over. The athletic fields and structures are ruined. The
entire campus is littered with shingles, shredded insulation, slivered wood,
dead birds and downed trees. Poling said that Kentucky's Speaker of the
House, Jody Richards (Kentucky Wesleyan's Class of 1960), toured the campus
Jan. 5 to view the damage and report to the governor's office. Richards
commented, "I remember when we planted those trees." 

Students planted many of the trees on campus during the 1950s, Poling said.
He told Richards, "Well, Jody, maybe what we'll have to do is get our alumni
together, and all you guys who planted trees years ago come back and plant
them again."

Several administrators said it was a blessing that second-semester classes
had not yet begun and virtually no students were on campus, except for the
men's and women's basketball teams and a few people who came back early for
student teaching. The school has 740 students enrolled, with 688 of them
full time.

Classes, scheduled to begin Jan. 10, have been postponed. Poling said Jan. 5
that school officials had not yet reached a decision on when students would
return to campus. 

"We know we're not going to be open next week," he said. "We're going to
take all next week just to clean up, get things back up to date, get things
repaired and get a feel for what has to be done." Students will not be
invited back to campus until the college has received occupancy permits
certifying that the dorms are safe, he said. 

Feeding students is a major issue, but already plans are under way for the
food service contractor, ARAMARK, to bring in "a kitchen on wheels" for
serving meals in the Health and Recreation Center, Poling said.

Administrators have already addressed the issue of the college calendar for
the second semester. They are looking at several options, such as shortening
spring break a couple of days and having a couple of Saturday classes,
Poling said. "We'll make sure that we cover all the academic material the
kids need to cover in any semester. We're not going to shortchange them.
We'll make that work."

With help from a nearby Catholic college, Kentucky Wesleyan staff members
planned to begin calling each student personally three days after the storm.
"Brescia (University) has graciously allowed us to come in and use 10 or 12
of their phone lines for a phone bank," said Donald E. Hines, vice president
for development and public relations. "We think that's real important that
they hear directly from someone here, in addition to what we're putting out
on the news." 

Students will be called in priority, according to the distance they live
from Owensboro, he said. "We're starting with those furthest away because we
want to catch (them) before they start back, not realizing what's happened.
We think it's unlikely that they haven't heard, but we just feel they need
to hear a voice." Meanwhile, college officials ask that students not call or
come to the campus until they are notified.

Kentucky Wesleyan staff and administrators find reason for optimism, even in
the face of devastation. The school's logo is a silhouette of the cupola
that tops President's Hall. Farmer recalled that when the group emerged from
the basement after the storm and looked outside, "someone said, 'Look, the
roof on President's Hall, half of it's blown off,' and I said, 'You're
right, but look, the cupola is still standing!'

"And last night," Farmer continued, "when all of the electricity was out
everywhere, there was one light shining on campus and it was in the cupola.

"The copper on it was all bent out of shape and the weather vane (was
leaning), and I thought, 'She's damaged, but she's standing.' And to me,
that's a sign of the strength of the college. We've run into adversity in
the middle of a major capital campaign when we're trying to improve campus.
We may have some setbacks out of this, but it's nothing we can't recover
from."

Poling agreed. "The buildings can get broken, but the spirit won't get
broken. The spirit of Wesleyan is on its way. There's no question of that."

"We won't even have to rise Phoenix-like because it isn't that bad," Hines
added. "We're just going to rise. We're going to come back better and
better."
# # #
*Vanderford is a free-lance writer living in Louisville, Ky., and a former
editor of a United Methodist newspaper.
 

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United Methodist News Service
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