By Anne Marie Amacher
DAVENPORT — A severe storm that ripped through Davenport on July 23 damaged the roof of Galvin Fine Arts building on the St. Ambrose University campus.
The storm, which happened about 4 p.m., “lifted and peeled back about 10,000 square feet of roof,” said Jim Hannon, physical plant director with the university. That was a little more than half of the building’s roof.
Damaged roofing material dropped into the east roof and into the parking lot. Materials included layers of roof — the original from 1969 and the replacement in 1997 — plus insulation.
With most of the roof being flat and with nothing to protect the building, water leaked into parts of the fine arts center, including the Allaret Auditorium.
Skylights in a computer lab were broken out from the upper roof falling through them, Hannon noted.
Giese Commercial Roofing of Park View assisted the university’s physical plant staff Saturday in the cleanup. About six dumpsters were filled with debris and a temporary roof was installed.
Werner Restoration Services of Colona, Ill., took care of the water damage inside the building.
Hannon said he would like to have a permanent roof installed on the building before students move in Aug. 22. “That gives me 20 working days,” he said Monday morning.
An old radio tower mounted to the rooftop also fell down. The radio station used that antenna until October 2009. Hannon said he heard winds were estimated to have been 70 mph.
On Monday morning he received a call that a tree was down on a vehicle at a house owned by the university. He knew of no other damage on campus.
