If everything goes as planned, those areas of the campus that flooded as a result of the May 31 tornado will look almost brand new by the time students return for the spring semester.

This storm caused several areas of standing water on campus, said J.B. Messer, director of Facilities Management.

“There is a total amount of approximately 75,000 square feet of carpeting that needs to be replaced,” Messer said. That would be roughly the equivalent of replacing carpet in 40 or 50 houses.

Insurance is going to cover damages, Messer said. Many areas of campus will see new carpeting and tiles soon.

Areas on the first, second and third floor of the Main Building were all affected. These areas are slowly but surely seeing new carpeting.

Students have noticed.

“You can tell a major difference in how fast carpeting is being replaced,” said Melissa Steiger, student.

Insurance is going to cover “line of sight” for the carpeting, which means that full sections of carpeting will be replaced in order to address possible future mold issues, Messer said.

The Facilities Management department is working to achieve their goal of being finished prior to the spring semester, Messer said.

“Even though that is a very aggressive goal, the only way that we can meet that goal is if the contractor that we are using has enough crews to have different crews working on different areas concurrently.”

Many of the damaged areas are being worked on during the weekend and holiday breaks to ensure that there will not be heavy foot traffic while construction and carpet replacement are being done.

Besides making repairs to the main campus, some work also has to be done at the Family and Community Education Center, located about one mile north of campus. That facility also experienced flooding.

The project was complicated by the presence of asbestos that also had to be dealt with.

“The carpet in that basement was on top of asbestos-containing material,” Messer said.

Marshall Environmental Management did the testing and removal of the material containing asbestos.

“There are certain state guidelines you have to follow when dealing with these materials,” Messer said.

For more information, call Messer at 405-682-1611 ext. 7812.