MUENSTER 鈥� One hour of overtime work may have made the difference between a completed Muenster School gymnasium and the 25-foot high pile of rubble, which is all that remains of the $300,000 [around $1 million in 2019 dollars] school addition.
The school addition was pushed over by 95 kilometre winds accompanying a brief thunderstorm that rolled through Muenster Tuesday night, June 12 [1979].
Last Tuesday afternoon, Dominion Bridge steel erection crews were working under clear skies welding steel rafters across the width of the gymnasium.
According to one person involved in the school's construction who did not want to be identified: 鈥淚f the steel crew had not gone by the letter of the union and instead had worked another hour, that building would not have come down.鈥�
The steel rafters are welded to a steel plate anchored in the concrete blocks. He pointed out that where the rafters had been welded the walls did not come down.
Dominion Bridge construction manager Tony Bork said his crew had been waiting for four weeks to get the steel up, but 鈥渨e kept getting put off by the Humboldt School Unit construction crew.鈥�
There are so many variables involved in the building's structure that it is impossible to say if the steel had been up the building would not have come down, he said.
United Concrete of Saskatoon had finished the block walls a week prior to the accident, and say they were waiting for Dominion Bridge to install the steel.
United Concrete spokesman Austin Christianson said he believes the strong winds vibrated the walls until they caved in.
He said he has also seen 16 inch thick block and brick walls come down when a sudden gust of wind creates a low pressure area or vacuum inside the building, causing it to explode.
Christianson said the crew that blocked-in the gymnasium has 鈥渕oved to a job out west," but said a crew currently finishing the St. Elizabeth Convent could be shunted to the Muenster job.
Humboldt School Unit construction foreman Norbert Kunz said his crew built the foundation and installed supports on both inside and outside of the gymnasium walls. He also said winds created a low pressure area inside the gymnasium. He said winds were gusting considerably higher than the 95 kilometre estimates.
In Englefeld the north wall of a $230,000 [around $796,000 in 2019 dollars] gymnasium going up at that school toppled during the same storm, causing $60,000 [around $208,000] damage.
Crews have already started to repair the damaged wall at Englefeld, and other crews will begin rebuilding the Muenster addition next week. Both gymnasiums are now scheduled for mid-winter openings.
Muenster school principal Ed Prokonetz said when the addition collapsed it did some damage to the existing school. Muenster school students had hoped to occupy the building, which includes a stage, by this October.
In past years students were bused to the St. Peter's College gymnasium. The principal said that practice would probably continue when students return to classes in Muenster this fall.
Although some Muenster residents say they heard a boom during the storm, no one has reported having actually witnessed the instant demolition.
