[CAUT] Tornado Damage at Union University

[Scott E. Thile]

Wow, that's terrible news, Bob!

But I'm very glad to hear you and your family, as well as all the students,
faculty, and staff at Union are OK. I was thinking about your situation when
we got the news about Union being hit. It's hard to imagine what that must
have been like to walk through that mess yesterday. I hope and pray you're
able to get things back in service as soon as possible, but it sounds like
it will be a while before Union is up and running again.

One thing that could cause severe damage to the pianos is having the very
high humidity raise the moisture content in the wood yesterday, and then
having it freeze over night. I've worked on older pianos that went through
freeze/thaw cycles like that, and in some cases the wood is extremely
brittle.

We were hit by the same storm systems here, but had no damage to speak of.
It sure was a crazy evening though. Our thoughts and prayers are with all
those in the path of these storms that lost family and property. 

Scott

Scott E. Thile, RPT
Piano/Instrument Technician
---------------------------
Dept. of Music, Murray State University
504 Fine Arts Building, Murray, KY 42071
Office Phone: 270-809-4396 
http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/index.html

> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On 
> Behalf Of Bob Hull
> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 12:12 AM
> To: College and University Technicians
> Subject: [CAUT] Tornado Damage at Union University
> 
> 
> Dear College and Univ. Techs:
> 
> On Tuesday night, Jackson, TN was hit hard by a
> tornado(s) with some of the most severe damage
> occurring at the school I service, Union University. 
> Most of the dorms are destroyed.  No students lost
> their lives and most injuries were minor.  Perhaps as
> much as $20 million worth of damage was sustained
> according to the Univ. president.  
> You may have seen some of the footage on national
> television. 
> 
> Part of the roof of the three-story music building was
> torn off and water flooded down to the first floor
> where the pianos were.  During the ordeal, I was away
> in Oklahoma taking care of a parent who has suffered a
> broken hip. As I came back into town today, I went by
> the school to see if I could help with any thing.  One
> of the profs gave me a tour of the dark and wet
> building.  Our two Hamburg D's were in the recital
> hall which flooded (not deeply).  They had rolled them
> out into the hallway which was not as "wet". - I think
> just the carpet is wet in the hall.   Both were
> covered at the time of the tornado and water flooding.
>  One cover was wet when they came to look at it this
> morning. The humidity in the bldg. was extremely high
> and they were going to have someone tomorrow working
> on that because they are afraid mold will begin to
> form.  Tonight the temp. will drop to 30 F and there
> is no heat of course in the building.  I'll have to
> look around more tomorrow.   I couldn't see anything
> without a flashlight.  
> I had just begun my round of tunings for the new
> semester.  
> 
> Any suggestions will be appreciated for evaluating and
> advising the music department.  I don't think that any
> were directly rained on - they may have just gotten
> very damp.  I'll find out more later. The main thing
> is that these students and their families were blessed
> that no one was killed by the storm as severe as it
> was.  
> 
> Hundreds of student and faculty cars were destroyed.
> 
> Gratefully,
> Bob Hull   
> 
> P.S. My family, home and shop which are about 5 miles
> away were untouched.  In the shop are three nice
> family heirloom grands of customers - two just about
> to be restrung and one to be refinished.  But as long
> as my family was protected, the other things don't
> really matter.    
>   
> 
> 
>       
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