Culver-Stockton College readies for students following tornado

CANTON, Mo. -- Culver-Stockton College's Chris Huebotter greets students returning for the start of classes next Tuesday at a table filled with packets of papers and a jar of free bubble gum.

"Do you need to register? Here's your schedule," the associate registrar says to each student that strolls past her dressed in summer garb, T-shirts and shorts, flip-flops and sandals.

Leslie Burditt, 19, a sophomore from nearby Hannibal is among those preparing for the new school year. Burditt had never seen destruction like what she saw following a May 10 tornado that ripped through campus and the town of Canton, located about 160 miles north of St. Louis.

Back to school

But now? "I don't think it'll affect anything," Burditt said. "It's just 'back to school."'

Surely that response was what school officials hoped to hear.

Employees, construction workers and volunteers spent the summer cleaning up fallen trees and shattered glass, tearing down devastated buildings, rearranging playing fields, constructing a practice athletic facility, moving a fraternity into a freshman dorm and replacing the main computer server.

Tornadoes strong-armed parts of the Midwest this spring.

The one that hit Canton destroyed a grocery store, where customers hid in the walk-in coolers. It tore the back off a newly constructed Comfort Inn, where a manager had an employee light a cigarette under a smoke detector to draw guests to the lobby. They then waited in a large bathroom and kitchen for the storm to pass. The hotel has since rebuilt and reopened. General manager Tina Uhlmeyer has a framed citation from state officials thanking her for her bravery in helping guests.

The funnel cloud next crossed over to the 143-acre Culver-Stockton campus, taking down a fraternity building, Zenge Hall, and destroying the field house, only hours after commencement was held there. Graduation decorations were found in the debris.

Every residence hall on campus sustained some damage.

It tore the landmark silver steel dome off the top of Henderson Hall, the school's administrative building, and wrapped it around a tree. The dome has not yet been replaced, but school officials say they're working on it.

The tornado continued through Canton, a town of roughly 2,700 residents.

Damage assessment

Fire chief Jeff McReynolds said 75 homes, 18 mobile homes and eight businesses were severely to totally damaged.

McReynolds, who also works in economic development, estimated that damage to outlying farms, the college and the town would ring in at $40 million to $50 million.

In Canton, some windows still bear spray-painted assessments of their structural safety: "OK" read some; "UNSAFE" say others.

Seven people sustained injuries, but there were no deaths. A handful of residents left, and haven't come back, though McReynolds said no one was unaccounted for after the storm.

And the rebuilding is well under way.

James Rockhold, 37, and his family have a new trailer home. How'd he pay for the new belongings? "Worked!" he said, "And pretty much just credit. A few vouchers through the Red Cross and FEMA."

He said, "I've moved up, and moved on. And I hope it doesn't happen again."

At Culver-Stockton, some of the lawns have been torn up to complete the work. Construction equipment dots the campus, and outdoor stairs still need to be replaced, meaning the occasional walk up a hillside.

School officials describe a summer of hard work to pull everything together.

The women's volleyball team is practicing in a large, metal building, so new it doesn't even have a name yet. "The temporary building? The intramural building? I guess we're looking for a name. We're open to suggestions. I'm just calling it 'my court,"' said coach Barb Crist.

The school is rebuilding its field house, but will retain this new structure, too, for practices and intramurals.

Three huge metal fans have been set up in the doorways, and the occasional bug flies through, but Crist said she's thrilled about what the school accomplished since the tornado.

On Sunday morning, 16 volunteers showed up to install pieces of a new court that an Illinois facility let the school borrow. Crist said she can't believe the way people have pulled together.

It's a sentiment that's repeated often on campus and around town.

Senior Jarrod Hendricks, 21, of Garrison, Iowa, returned to a campus without the fraternity house he'd left. He and 33 other Delta Upsilon members now are living in the dorm many of them lived in as freshmen.

But, he said, as a fraternity recruiter, he saw an upside -- lots of freshmen to encourage to join the frat, which is expected to have a brand new house by the end of the school year. "I think it'll be cool," he said. "I don't mind it," he said, "because where else do they have to place us?"