About 900 teenagers and camp staff narrowly escaped injury when severe storms struck the campus of North Greenville University July 21.
Part of the roof of North Greenville University’s Donnan Administration Building landed atop the Neves Academic Building during a July 21 storm that hit the campus.The students, who were attending Centrifuge and M-Fuge camps, were finishing a worship service and about to move to Bible study classes in NGU’s Donnan Administration Building when the storm hit, according to the university’s Web site. Half of that building’s roof was torn off and the debris landed on the nearby Neves Academic Building, a quarter of which collapsed.
Damage to the campus was estimated at $500,000 to $1 million, but North Greenville president Jimmy Epting was more focused on what he called “a miracle in Tigerville.”
“This is nothing when you think about lives,” Epting told the Greenville News. “To know you had that many people on campus and not one was hurt – it was a miracle in Tigerville.”
While a tornado was not reported, storms like the one that struck the campus still can pack winds in excess of 60 mph, according to a National Weather Service meteorologist.
Damage to the administration building was minimal because an original flat roof underneath the existing roof remained intact, the school reported on its Web site. A portion of the building that housed the school’s main computer server was damaged by water. The area damaged in the academic building includes the registrar’s office.
“Buildings can be replaced, but lives can’t,” Epting said. “We are very blessed that no one was injured.”
The campers finished out their week of camp, and fall classes will begin as scheduled on Aug. 20. – BP