013111 The OARDC community hears about tornado recovery efforts
By Sharon Haught
January 25, 2011
312
While visual reminders of the tornado that swept through the OARDC campus in September remain, much has been accomplished in moving the recovery efforts forward.
When the faculty, staff and students gathered for a town hall meeting on January 21 to hear more about the recovery efforts the message from OSU administrators from Columbus was youre not alone.
Its certainly not a one or a two person enterprise and its not even a campus enterprise. The reality is that to get to where we are – and we have made tremendous progress – we couldnt have done it alone, said OARCD Director Steve Slack.
Virtually everyone has contributed to making this work. It really underscores the quality of the people we have when you go through an event like this how people put their shoulder to the work effort and do what needed to be done, said Slack.
I certainly dont need to tell you that this was the worst single disaster in OSU history but I think at the same time the response to this disaster really represented President (Gordon) Gees one university concept. When you think about the coordinated response that was needed it really does exemplify what he talks about, said OSU Vice President for Research Carol Whitacre.
I want to let you know how important you are to the people in Columbus. Central administration cares very deeply about what happens here, the recovery and trying to get things back absolutely as quickly as possible, added Whitacre.
By any measure, the work that has been done here has really been extraordinary, said OSU Associate Vice President, Facilities Operations and Development Lynn Readey recounting the steps in the recovery process.
Readey noted that the first step was to understand what the scope and the magnitude of the problem was.
With assistance from an outside damage assessment consultant in four days time we had a pretty good assessment of the scope of the problem that we were facing, said Readey.
The university retained a company specializing in disaster cleanup to remove debris and secure buildings. According to Readey each day for 121 days, a crew of between 100 and 120 workers tackled the daunting list of tasks necessary to complete the cleanup.
One of the things that the entire recovery crew had to be careful of is we want to move very rapidly and people have a lot of urgent needs but we want to be very attentive to the engineering needs and the evaluations of the buildings, said Readey noting the initial efforts put in to buttoning up the buildings to prevent further damage.
The need to get, as quickly as possible, just functioning and communicating on a day-to-day basis really took up a lot of the early stages of recovery, added Readey.
The renewal phase of the recovery is already underway.
The Entomology and Selby greenhouses have been repaired and temporary greenhouses will soon be on line. Repairs to the Research Operations building, Williams Head House, Miller Pavilion, Fisher Auditorium, Stone House and Selby Hall are also underway.
According to Readey in early February the university will press on with the demolition of those structures that we have conclusively determined are in line to be demolished including the Williams greenhouses, Agricultural Engineering greenhouses, Rat Barn, Bee Lab and Bull Barn.
Longer term plans are also being made for permanent greenhouses and the Agricultural Engineering Building.
OSU Assistant Vice President and Director of Public Safety Vernon Baisden looked back on the extraordinary experience the OSU community has shared.
I think we have come through this in good fashion. Its not over yet. Its not done yet. Theres work to be done but were coming through it, said Baisden.
