Eyes on Campus

1:40 pm.

Reports via cell phone from friend on campus:

Dennison Avenue is completely closed off and the area is being cleaned up as we speak. The building and grounds crews at KSU are hard at work putting tarps over the damaged buildings at KSU. Cardwell Hall has lost all the windows at the top and the ventilation system on the top of the building is shredded. You can see where the tornado touched down and pulled everything toward it. Many of the trees in the area have lost major branches, and there are branches strewed all over the ground.

The bottom level of Cardwell has already been boarded up. Danker Roofing has their crews on the grounds currently.

Burt Hall has many trees down, luckily the stone building has stood well in the face of the storm.

Waters Hall is missing windows and is roped off.

ECS seems to have escaped much damage (I spent much time there as a Grad Student.) although there is much debris. Chunks of the roof from the nuclear power plant are on the ground. The Engineering building has lost all the trees, many uprooted and knocked over.

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Cars in the parking lot have been picked up and thrown. Hoods are torn off cars, and some are stacked on top of each other. (see photo in earlier post)


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Campus is navigable thanks to the great response from the community and the KSU Grounds and Facilities Crew. Cleanup is progressing in an orderly manner. There are quite a few students walking around with their cellphone/cameras taking pics of the damage.

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A special thank you goes out to Manhattan's first responders: the police, the firemen, and the EMS & Red Cross workers. They were out last night pulling people out of the torn houses. RCDP must be running on fumes as today has progressed.

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As major news networks are now covering this story, I'm signing off for today. I am extremely grateful that Manhattan was blessed enough to have no lives lost. And grateful for the emergency system that warned local residents in a timely manner to take cover. I'm certain their work saved lives.

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