The University experienced severe weather very early Thursday morning.The University will remain open throughout the day. While no injuries were reported, the campus suffered limited power outages and some trees are down. Some of the most visible damage occured at the indoor football practice facility. Pieces of the roof dangle from the sides of the building and chunks of insulation are scattered in a lot next door.Sports Information Director Michael Bonnette said the Athletic Department is still assessing the damage to the facility, but it appears that it has been hit by a tornado. “That facility has been there for many, many hurricanes and has been able to withstand those types of storms,” Bonnette said. “This is the worst I’ve seen it.”Eddie Nunez, associate athletic director of operations and project development, said 35 percent of the indoor football facility’s roof either came off or is loose.The indoor facility, which was built in 1991, is used by the football team for spring practice.”We’ve got the outdoor fields. As long as it doesn’t rain, we can always practice outside,” Bonnette said.Nunez said the baseball and softball stadiums, along with the soccer complex had damage.Nunez said the soccer complex took a big hit, as 90 percent of the bleachers blew onto the field. He said all the bleachers will have to be replaced.”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.”The new baseball and softball fields also received some damage to their outfield fences, according to Nunez.The new Alex Box Stadium’s outfield seems to have taken the blunt of the damage to the new stadium, as the entire outfield fence either fell or was being held up at some point in time during the storm, according to Nunez.LSU coach Paul Mainieri said the entire outfield fence will have to be replaced because of wind damage that tore part of the fence out of its foundation.The fence blew outward toward Nicholson Drive in right field and inward toward Gourrier Lane in left field, according to Mainieri.”They are going to come up with a temporary solution to the problem for now until we get out of the weekend series [against Ole Miss],” Mainieri said.Mainieri said the plan is to fix the fence once the weekend series is over as the team does not have a home game after this weekend until April 8.In addition, Nunez said the light pole in right center field was apparently stuck by lightning and was not working as of early this afternoon.Nunez said both the fence and the light pole are being addressed.”Hopefully we will have all of that running by today, if not then by tomorrow before the game,” Nunez said.Nunez added the baseball team’s weekend series against Ole Miss is still on schedule to be held at the stadium.The softball stadium also took a blow, according to Nunez.”We lost about two-thirds of the fence,” he said. “They are putting it back up this afternoon. A foul pole was bent, and we are addressing that as we speak. The rest is just debris on the field. The scoreboard has one little module that fell down, and that is being taken care of.”Nunez said all other facilities received minimal, if any, damage. That includes the track stadium, which had some equipment that got tossed around. Nunez said the Tiger Relays are still on schedule to be held at the stadium this weekend.The basketball practice facility, which is in the process of being constructed, received little to no damage, according to LSU basketball sports information director Kent Lowe.”As far as I’ve heard, everything is fine over there,” he said.Emmett David, Facility Services director, said as of 2 p.m., the Life Science Building, the Audubon Sugar Institute, Energy, Coast & Environment building, Dalrymple, 459 Commons, Highland Cafeteria, the New Chemical Building, the Chancellor’s residence, the Military Science building and the Systems building all sustained damage.The New Chemical Building seemingly received the majority of the damage, David said.”Facility Services is aggressively mitigating and preparing the facilities for protection for future inclement weather,” David said.According to David, Facility Services started operations at 2 a.m. Thursday morning.Jay Grymes, state climatologist, said it has not yet been determined whether the damages sustained by the University and campus area were the result of a tornado.”There are some unconfirmed reports of tornadic activity,” Grymes said. “So far, we haven’t been able to really verify [the reports].”The severe winds and weather experienced were part of a squall line, an organized line of severe thunderstorms, Grymes said.
“Outbreaks of severe weather, particularly tornadic activity, is greatest during the spring,” Grymes said. “Over the next several weeks, we could see other severe weather events.”The Baton Rouge Airport reported wind gusts of 66 mph in the midst of last nights storm. According to Christopher Bannan, Slidell National Weather Service meteorologist, Baton Rouge experienced a bow echo in last night’s storm.A bow-shaped radar signature is associated with fast-moving storm systems accompanied by damaging winds.Baton Rouge saw moderate rains, with reports of one to two inches, Bannan said.Southeast Louisiana will be under flash flood warning through Saturday morning and will likely experience bad weather conditions — with possibilities of hail and tornados — both Thursday evening and Friday evening, Bannan said.Meanwhile, vehicles near Herget and Miller Halls were also damaged.The EOC is continuing to monitor the damages.Several car windows were also blown out in the UREC parking lot.Tree branches are down across campus as facility services workers were piling up the debris and cleaning the campus this morning.The e-mail requested students, faculty and staff allow additional time for commuting. The University’s Emergency Operations Center is monitoring the situation, and they will alert the campus community should the need arise.——Contact The Daily Reveille news staff at [email protected]