The scene that greeted University students, faculty and staff Thursday morning was eerily familiar — debris covering the ground, tree limbs in the streets and scattered power outages. Thanks to Thursday morning’s severe weather, damage on campus resembled the destruction left by Hurricane Gustav in September. Though administrators are still assessing the damages, Facility Services reported at least a dozen University facilities sustained damages from heavy winds, which were estimated to have reached nearly 70 mph.No injuries were reported.The University Emergency Operations Center was activated early Thursday morning to monitor the situation, according to a 9:12 a.m. message posted on the University’s Web site. The EOC was activated in response to “the impact of severe weather conditions on and around the LSU campus early Thursday morning.”The EOC was deactivated Thursday afternoon.ACADEMIC BUILDINGS HIT HARDEmmett David, Facility Development director, said as of 2 p.m. Thursday, the Life Sciences Building, the Audubon Sugar Institute building, the Energy, Coast & Environment Building, the Dalrymple Building, 459 Commons, Highland Dining Hall, the new Chemical Engineering Building, the Military Science and Aerospace Studies Building, the LSU System Building and the chancellor’s residence all sustained damage.”Facility Services is aggressively mitigating and preparing the facilities for protection for future inclement weather,” David said. “Facility Services, having just experienced damage from Hurricane Gustav [on] Sept. 1, is very well seasoned on how to secure our facilities.”Among the buildings, the new Chemical Engineering Building, especially the third floor, received the most damage, and it’s the only building that “sustained enough damage to question its use,” David said.The new Chemical Engineering Building was being “reviewed for technical use” by Facility Services as of Thursday afternoon.”The campus is capable of holding classes and conducting business as close to normal as possible,” David said. “[Facility Services] hit the road running at 2 a.m. We have got contractors already on our campus. We are working at full speed.”Overall, the damaged buildings experienced roof damage, shingle loss, mechanical ventilation system blowoff, gutter damage, displaced roof tiles and water damage, David said.Ashley Berthelot, research editor for the Office of Public Affairs and public information officer on duty for the EOC, said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille that windows were broken at the Chancellor Michael Martin’s home.Berthelot said some vehicles parked near Herget and Miller halls were also damaged.ATHLETIC FACILITIES NOT SPAREDSeveral athletic facilities on campus were also damaged — perhaps most notably the football team’s indoor practice facility which lost “about 35 percent” of its roof.”That facility has been there for many, many hurricanes and has been able to withstand those types of storms,” said Michael Bonnette, sports information director. “This is the worst I’ve seen it.”LSU football coach Les Miles and his team had to cut an outdoor practice short Thursday because of inclement weather.”It was unfortunate weather we had today,” Miles said. “We’re optimistic the [indoor] field will be ready by midweek next week. We got a good half practice in, and we want to have a quality scrimmage Saturday.”Bonnette said the team will continue to practice outdoors as much as possible. He also said the PMAC could house an indoor practice.The new Alex Box Stadium also took a hit. But LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said the Tigers’ weekend series with Ole Miss should still go on as scheduled despite damaged outfield fences.”They are going to come up with a temporary solution to the problem for now,” Mainieri said.A light tower in the stadium’s right field was also damaged.”It must have been struck by lightning,” Mainieri said. “We have electricians working on it.”Track and field coach Dennis Shaver said the track facilities are also damaged, but the Tiger Relays at Bernie Moore Track Stadium are still on schedule for the weekend.A softball doubleheader was canceled Thursday because of damage to Tiger Park’s right-field fence.”It was a department decision,” said Matt Dunaway, softball team spokesman. “There is some minor damage to one of the fences in right field. There is a couple other little things. It’s just one of those things that we felt it was just not in our best interest to play.”Eddie Nunez, associate athletic director of operations and project development, said the LSU Soccer Complex also took a hit — particularly to its bleachers.”They blew over, and it caused minor damage on the field, but it’s nothing that can’t be repaired in the next day or so,” Nunez said. “All the bleachers are unusable, so we will have to remove all of those at some point.”Kent Lowe, men’s basketball team spokesman, said the basketball practice facility under construction received little to no damage.”As far as I’ve heard, everything is fine over there,” Lowe said.TORNADO DEBATEJay Grymes, WAFB chief meteorologist, called last night’s winds part of “pretty powerful squall lines,” and he said it’s yet to be determined if a tornado hit the University area.A squall line is an organized line of “strong to severe” thunderstorms in a row. The line of storms began to show “bowing” late in the evening, which Grymes said resulted in the unusually high wind gusts. “These kinds of systems can generate brief tornadoes,” Grymes said. “[It’s possible that with] such a short-lived storm, sometimes the radar [won’t] have time to verify it.”The Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport recorded peak wind gusts of 67 mph while wind gusts at two University weather stations recorded peak wind gusts in the 40s.The National Weather Service will likely be the primary determinant as to whether the severe winds will be considered a tornado, according to Grymes.”Is there evidence of the dispersion of the damage that may suggest a rotation?” Grymes questioned. “It’s still as much art as science. The final call for that is the National Weather Service unless we can find a witness who saw the funnel.”Christopher Bannan, meteorologist with the Slidell branch of the National Weather Service, said there were no reports of tornado activity in Baton Rouge. “It was all straight-line wind damage,” Bannan said. “There was no rotation with that storm. It was all going from west to east.”WEATHER FORECASTMeteorologists forecast weather conditions similar to Thursday morning for Friday evening. “Outbreaks of severe weather, particularly tornadic activity, are greatest during the spring,” Grymes said. “Over the next several weeks, we could see other severe weather events.”While Grymes didn’t anticipate the severe weather Thursday morning, he said a cold front could result in catastrophic weather late Friday night or early Saturday morning.”A lot of the ingredients for another round of active weather appear to be coming together for Friday night into Saturday morning,” Grymes said. “The next cold front … has the potential to be a real bulldozer.”—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]