Tornado damage to our baseball field

This is pretty devastating.

Fungo - I believe you have mentioned in the past that you participated in the planning and/or construction of those facilities. Curious now if the Insurance Company may require higher building standards in the future given that the facility has already been hit by a tornado. For example, I am guessing they will pay for the dugouts to be re-built but might they also require them to be steel re-enforced concrete as opposed to concrete block construction? I have no idea actually but wondered if that topic might come up.

You might be able to stay with concrete block if you use vertical reinforcing rods and mortar in the voids

Looks like our field after Wilma. I do beleive our area was hit by a tornado fron the hurricane, often times that occurs depending on which side of the hurricane you are situated. We got the "dirty" side.

It took two years to rebuild, had to come into compliance with building code standards (whatever that is for baseball fields) for our clubhouse and concession stand, dugouts. All wooden structures were replaced with aluminum and steel and open to allow air flow. All bleachers to be anchored down solidly on concrete and remain as such stationary.
Our biggest loss was our newly replaced batting cages. Because we had replaced them ourselves, we were responsible. However in hindsight, we built "cages" that were steel poles solidly placed into concrete with netting, no roof and only parts of the netting needed to be replaced or repaired.

WOw, northside baseball took quite a hit. Will opening day be conducted elsewhere? Where will you play your opening game and what is the exact date your state high school baseball governing body allow teams to conduct their first game?

Practice started yesterday and it seems as if we will play as scheduled at home. Opening day is around the 1st of March. As far as building codes go -- I know the concession/press box had to meet all codes and inspections because I'm the one that built it. I'm not sure if the dugouts fall into a category that requires building codes but grouting the blocks and using rebar would be a good idea. The school board did put insurance on all the athletic facilities after the devastating tornado hit in 2003 and completely destroyed another baseball field (they had no insurance at that time). Someone said MLB stepped in and help rebuild that field. I talked to the coach Saturday and he said insurance would cover the repairs/replacement cost.
Fungo

So sorry to see this.

The American spirit can be amazing at times like these. I bet if you need volunteers to help clean up and repair, they will come, and will come quite willingly.

quote:

I talked to the coach Saturday and he said insurance would cover the repairs/replacement cost.

That is very good news.

Fungo - Sorry to see the boy's fields. That shot of the helmets strown about is touching - reminds you of the souls affected by such a loss. Good luck to the guys and may they use this set back as motivation for a wonderful season!

I've wondered where all those kids at Union University will be housed? Have you heard?

The destruction looks just terrible. Just be thankful that it was after all buildings and fences. Hope your team and their families made it through safely.

Fungo, I feel for your community and the baseball program. As you might recall, we were hit by a tornado in the fall of 2006. Then, we waited for the insurace company to pay. They sent their adjusters out. Then we waited. They sent more. We waited. We started this past spring without completed/repaired dugouts, cages, etc. Again, I know what you are going through.

A couple of suggestions.

• First, if you know someone with a metal detector, have them go over the area around the dugouts and field. We kept finding nails, sharp metal, etc. every where.
• Have a coaching staff member walk with the adjusters. Simply put, they don't understand everything involved. As an example, I mentioned that Our rolling cage was torn up. They didn't have a concept of what a "rolling cage" was.
• Make sure you take an inventory of all of the equipment. We not only lost our cages, we lost items that we took for granted. For example, the 6x6 nets we hit into on the sides of the cages when we hit in stations. I messed up and forgot to add those.
• Have a stragetic plan for what has to be "first" when the adjusters give the ok to move. We have a maintenance director and so, we worked with him and they got to work fast. The day after approval by the adjustors, we had a fence company ready to put up the backstop which had been knocked down.
• Finally, have your parents ready to help any way that they can but remember that some items should be put up by professionals.

Good luck!