BOZEMAN, Mont. – A day after the South Gym roof collapsed at Montana State University — and now MSU officials say a *second building may be soon to follow.
In a release Friday — MSU staff said an assessment of the North Gym’s roof shows that it is likely to fail.
But MSU is making efforts to stop this from happening.
Crews could be seen shoveling and blowing snow off of the buildings next to the South Gym, which still lies in ruin.
Officials said there is no reliable way to predict when — or if — the North Gym could also collapse, but they say the university is preparing for the worst.
“It’s crazy that that happened on a college campus,” said Logan McGreevey, a junior at MSU.
MSU officials say crews were still working quickly Friday, a day after the South Gym’s roof slammed into the gymnasium floor below, a sight seen even more clearly from the university’s drone footage.
Now, the threat that the North Gym’s roof could follow suit has students like Logan concerned.
“There’s always people in that gym, too,” McGreevey said. “You can always walk by it and there’s, whether it is ROTC or exercise classes or even intramurals.”
In an online release, University Communications said crews are keeping a close eye on the North Gym, isolating utilities and closing Grant Street.
“There are older buildings than that one on-campus so it was kind of like ugh, maybe we’d be a little bit more cautious but they are getting it under control and saw them clearing snow off the rest of the Fieldhouse yesterday,” McGreevey said.
Signs reading KEEP OUT are commonplace right now as the safety teams go in and make sure that the building is structurally sound.
Students hope, though, that the rest of the assessment goes to the outside buildings.
“I have a class two times a week in this building and I don’t know when that is going to resume,” said Cuyler Alberda, another MSU student.
As they look on the wreckage of the South Gym, Cuyler and his wife, Alexa, said they hope another collapse can be avoided.
“It definitely would have killed people without a doubt,” Alexa said. “There’s a lot of people that use that building.”
“We can only hope that going forward, that the necessary precautions are taken to prevent anything happening,” Culyer said.
MSU officials added that other than the fitness center area, there are no other concerns about stability in other campus buildings.
MSU Communications said nearly two dozen engineers from across the state are evaluating the 40-plus flat-roofed buildings on campus.
Photos courtesy of MSU News Service:
