Western escaped the brunt of severe storms which ravaged the southeast Tuesday night and early Wednesday and left at least seven dead in Kentucky.
Lightning-bearing clouds and rough winds passed through Bowling Green, but Western reported no damage to its main campus, said Gene Tice, vice president of student affairs and campus services.
Western canceled classes at its Elizabethtown campus because of a power outage caused by downed supply lines. Power was restored at about 5 p.m. yesterday and classes resumed today.
The Elizabethtown campus dodged physical damage, campus director Ronald Stephens said. About a mile west of the campus severe winds blew the roof off a high school gymnasium.
Neither the Glasgow or Owensboro campuses reported any damage.
Bowling Green reported some flooding, but no physical damage, said Ronnie Pearson, the director of Warren County Emergency Management.
“We escaped a bullet last night,” Pearson said Wednesday.
Three people died in Powderly in Muhlenberg County, about an hour west of Bowling Green.
At least four deaths were reported in neighboring Allen County.
In Tennessee, at least 31 deaths were reported.
At press time, the death toll from the storms was 55 with at least 100 injured, the New York Times reported.
A storm Jan. 29 had gusts of up to 50 miles per hour uprooted trees, broke windows and tore shingles on campus.
Repairs are complete, said Charles Harrison, manager of maintenance services. Costs haven’t been determined yet, but money for repairs will come from Western’s maintenance fund until insurance companies cover them in a few months.
If the storm on Wednesday had hit Western harder, Western officials would have notified dorm residents in person and by phone.
The COWS siren system and mass e-mails also could have also been used.
Western is working on a mass text-message warning system and an emergency notification system which could broadcast warnings to students across campus.
Those are expected to be completed soon, Tice said.
Speakers for the notification system are scheduled to be tested May 12.
Reach Corey Paul at news@chherald.com.
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