On November 27 about 4:45 PM I was sitting at my desk in my study which is at the far west end of the educational wing of Westmoreland Baptist Church. The secretary and youth pastor were both gone for the day. I was trying to wrap things up so I could get home to help Linda start preparations for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. But that is when the phone call came.
Our neighbor across Hughes Street was on the line. She said,"I wasn't sure if anyone was there or not, but did you know your column is out in the street?"
What??? I ran out the door at the Welcome Center at the far west end of the building and could hardly believe my eyes. One of the four huge 20 foot columns that had graced the front of our building since 1956 had actually blown over!
It had been a wild day to say the least. We had been warned by Tony Cavalier (the News Channel 3 meterologist) that it was going to be a day of high winds. Boy oh boy! That was an understatement. The wind had howled all day long blowing from the west to the east. Some gusts were going to be as high as 65-75 mph Tony had warned us. That is near the threshold of hurricane force. I was worried about my roof holding up back at the house, and fearful that some more of the siding would be blown off the side of my home. Losing one of those massive columns was the last thing I expected that day!
For several months large cracks in the surface covering of two of the columns had been noted by several of our folks. One of the long time members who had long been involved in church maintenance activities assured us "I've always been told that there are steel beams inside each column and the columns, themselves, are only decorative." Our Stewardship Committee (who were just finishing up their proposed budget for 2020) had noted the need for repair work on the columns. Due to the size of the things, and our limited budget, it went on the "wish list" for 2020, knowing that eventually we would need to take care of the problems. We had no idea that it would jump from the wish list to the "gotta deal with it now" list at any time so soon.
With the column down - as can be seen in the upper right photo, it was easy to see there was NO steel beam inside as was once thought. Understandably there is no one at the church now who was old enough to be involved in the construction of this building back in 1956, so the steel beam theory turned out to be mythology. Knowing this, it put a much higher priority on the badly cracked column next to the fallen one - and the one on the far west of the portico, which was beginning to show some cracking, itself.
It turns out that the wooden columns had begun to deteriorate from standing water trapped inside them. Drain holes had been calked up at some time long ago when the columns had gone through a painting project. Now - nearly rotted out at the base, the columns had actually "dropped down" - not enough to be visible to the untrained eye - but enough to weaken the fallen one enough that the high winds just knocked it over.
Having worked as a Nationwide Insurance Company agent for 22 years - I had little hope that we would get much help from our insurance company due to the nature of the damage. "Call Church Mutual" I advised our Trustees and we need to get someone to get in here quickly to secure it from further damage. Ryan Smith (our bi-youth pastor and contractor, himself) suggested Classic Construction Co, with whom he had previous dealings. He said, "They would be equipped to handle something of this scale". So we gave them a call and they were there the next morning to shore up the portico roof with scaffolding and steel beams for a temporary fix.
The Christmas holidays were coming up quickly and it was going to take a while for the adjusters and the construction company - which had several other jobs in progress - to be able to get much done before the end of the year. The area was secured and protected from further damage, but it was certainly unsightly as well as inconvenient.
We knew that the security work was going to be costly, but what really concerned us was how we would ever be able to afford to replace the down'd column, as well as how we would be able to replace or repair the others. Estimates began to come in and the prices were frightening. The estimated cost to replace the columns would be about $25,000 and we were looking at three more who were in bad shape.This was going to be a huge undertaking for an average sized congregation.
We didn't break out into a panic, but the trustees and stewardship committees were frantically discussing what possible options we might have. We had inherited some money from an estate bequeath several years ago, but some of that was in a trust fund and some was in bonds that had not yet come to maturity. Would we have to go into heavy debt after getting out from under our mortgage just a few years ago. We still hadn't heard back from the insurance company and every day the concern got a little greater. My head was telling me that we had a real problem here, but there was a strange peace in my heart that things would be ok. I urged our congregation to be in earnest prayer for the situation and to remember the promise of Philippians 4:19, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory, through Christ Jesus."
Well, to make a long story shorter, let me cut to the chase. When we finally heard from the Insurance Company, it was in a letter that said they had mailed us a check in the amount of $109,000. This would actually be enough to pay for the replacement cost of ALL FOUR columns! That was wonderful news. However, we knew that there would be other expenses, not the least of which being the emergency work that had been done immediately following. In just a couple of days we got another letter from the insurance company stating they had recalculated and another check was on the way. In the final analysis, the cost of replacing all four columns were covered by our insurance. Furthermore, the new columns would have almost identical capstones and bases as those which graced the old columns since I was a six year old!
Now I can hear you saying, "Well, that's what insurance is for". But I'm telling you that from my experience, that with our situation I was basically hoping that the insurance might pay for debris removal and emergency work but I truly had doubts that it would be much more than that. But thanks be to God (and Church Mutual Insurance Company) the new columns have been ordered and should be in place by Easter!
