In the early morning of June 4, a storm came through St. Joseph that brought significant damage to the Patee House Museum and a Buchanan County emergency management building, as previously reported by News-Press NOW.
Five months later and Buchanan County is almost done fixing the emergency management building, which houses an EMS unit and the regional hazardous material team.
One large building on the property was pulled out of the ground, lifted over another building and crashed into a lot of J & L Drywall Supplies. It was a shelter for a number of trailers and supplies.
Bill Brinton, the Buchanan County emergency management coordinator, said the National Weather Service estimated the winds at the location were as high as 100 mph. According to News-Press NOW’s Storm Tracker Weather Team, the high winds were due to “intense downbursts that were possibly derived from colliding outflow boundaries.”
The main building, where paramedics stayed, had a quarter of its roof blown off and many indoor ceiling tiles and lights caved in. No one was injured during the storm.
“It took us a while to clean everything up, because the building I was talking about actually went over into J & L’s yard,” Brinton said. “The Western District of Buchanan County and their employees, the courthouse maintenance employees, and myself and some team members, we went down here picking up debris trying to secure the roof because the roof was off, and with the threat of rain and different things in the building being open, we were very concerned about it.”
The storm caused about $400,000 worth of damage. The county was covered by insurance and contractors have been rebuilding the property for the last five months.
Brinton said the building is important because it is used for many purposes. Emergency response teams store equipment at the building, but it is also shared with many organizations throughout town.
Just last week, United Way of Greater St. Joseph used the property to give items away to people affected by the recent flooding.
“It’s the home of the hazmat team,” Brinton said. “I have a training center that’s used by different organizations and the county. It’s just important that we have a home, it’s where we keep all of our stuff.”
The building that was blown away was rebuilt, this time with concrete supports. A new roof and awning were installed on the main building. There are only a couple of odds and ends left to complete, such as putting in solar panels and a garage door. Brinton said everything should be done very soon.
