A line of tornadoes late Wednesday night caused widespread damage across northeast Kansas, including a direct hit on the town of Chapman and considerable damage in Manhattan.

In fact, areas of Kansas State University (KSU) were significantly damaged, including Weber Hall. According to Ken Odde, KSU Animal Sciences Department head, the southeast entrance to Weber Hall was completely destroyed, as was the majority of the roof over Weber Arena.

“It will be a long time before Weber Hall will be fully functional again,” Odde says. “The most important thing is there were no injuries.”

Thursday was spent assessing damage and trying to secure the building. Odde is hopeful the portions of Weber that had minimal damage will be partially functional in the next few weeks. Call Hall and the KSU livestock units were not affected, while Waters Hall, which houses the College of Ag offices and classrooms, sustained some damage.

There were several other structures on campus that where hit by the tornado, including the engineering building and the wind erosion lab. Currently, storm damage at KSU is estimated at $20 million.