Storm damage reported across campus

Pittsburg State’s campus experienced damage after storms on Monday, May 20. There were no reported injuries.  

Several buildings received minor damage including Grubbs hall, Heckert-Wells, the Garfield Weede building, Carnie Smith Stadium, and the Kansas Technology Center. Trees were downed or damaged across campus including a tree that fell near the university lake and restricted access to the bridge.  

Chief financial officer and vice president for administration Doug Ball  

“… Grubbs was certainly by far the greatest damage that we experienced,” Ball said. “There was some much smaller damage to a few other locations. Heckert-Wells did have some limited damage to the greenhouse that is on top of the building (which) will have to be repaired… The Weede building did have some smaller damage to the roof and some repairs to that have already taken place. From a building perspective, those are the main ones.” 

Trees were downed or damaged across campus including a tree that fell near the university lake and restricted access to the bridge. 

“Certainly, we had significant damage to the trees across campus,” Ball said. “I think there were 16 trees that were either destroyed or damaged to the point that they had to be removed. You might have seen the large tree near the university lake that was knocked into the lake and had to be pulled out and removed…” 

During the summer, Grubbs offers online courses so the damage to the fourth floor did not affect any classes. There has not been any interference to any other summer courses in any building that was damaged.  

Grubbs was the most effected by the storm. Parts of the roof were damaged and as a result of that the building took on some water damage on the fourth floor. Faculty members went in early Tuesday morning and removed furniture and anything else on the top floor that could be damaged.  

“We are taking an inventory right now of anything that was damaged as a result of the water in Grubbs and so from an electronics perspective, I do not have that information yet,” Ball said. “That is being gathered by the faculty and staff in that building. We certainly knew there was some damage to the interior of the building and so there will be some interior repairs that are required as well as the fix of the roof.”  

According to Ball, there is no set timeline for damages to be repaired as of yet.  

“The timeline is still under development,” Ball said. “We are in discussion with a roofing contractor right now to see how quickly we can the permanent roof fixes in place. We have put temporary corrections in place to keep additional water coming in, but the permanent fix is still being scheduled. Until that is scheduled, I do not really have a definitive schedule for the remainder of the activity. It is underway. My goal is to have it done during the summer so that it is completed for the fall but at this point we do not have firm schedules…”