UW-Platteville tornado damage set at $18.6 million

June 03--The tornado that tore through the UW-Platteville campus last June caused $18.6 million in damage to the football stadium, four buildings and a park, the school said Tuesday.

Several tornadoes touched down around southern Wisconsin just before midnight on June 16, and one of the worst was the EF-2 tornado that ripped through the campus's two newest dorms that were housing high school students attending sports and academic camps, destroyed thousands of trees, toppled the light towers at the stadium and showered the area with shards of glass.

Two dorms suffered the worst damage: Bridgeway Commons at $7.3 million, and Rountree Commons at $4.8 million, the report said. Damage at Southwest Hall and Engineering Hall was $1.8 million each; Pioneer Stadium took a $1.7 million hit.

Although there were some serious injuries reported in the city of Platteville, there were no deaths or significant injuries on campus, which was devoid of students other than the campers. "As bad as it was, we were very fortunate and lucky, because it could have been much worse," school spokesman Paul Erickson said.

There are very few signs of damage on campus, UW-Platteville Chancellor Dennis J. Shields said in the report. "That is a testament to all the hard work and extra hours that people put in to ensure we had a successful academic year," he said.

University employees bypassed vacations to help with repairs, and officials from the UW System and insurance companies worked together to pay all the bills so the campus was ready for students on the first day of classes last September, Erickson said.

"The school had 80 days to get the repairs done. That was the mantra," Erickson said. "It was a huge collaborative effort. It really pulled people together. It made our campus community stronger for it."

University officials sought advice from other colleges and universities that have recovered from natural disasters, Erickson said. UW-Platteville decided to re-sod much of the area where the tornado did most of its damage after officials from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota told them they are still finding debris in their grass 16 years after a tornado severely damaged their campus.

"They said remove what you can because you never know," Erickson said. "We had glass all over the place, so we re-sodded to make it safe for somebody walking barefoot through campus years from now."

The most heavily damaged area was around Memorial Park, where hundreds of trees were destroyed or damaged, Erickson said.

"There's no way to replace those trees," he said. "We've replanted some, but the fruits of that labor won't be seen for years to come."

___

(c)2015 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.)

Visit The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) at www.wisconsinstatejournal.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.