Tornado in Billings

[The Destroyer]

The meteorologist that surveyed the damaged classified it and the high end of an F2 with winds around 130 mph according to the Gazette today.

[AlphaGriz1]

Sounds like no one was even seriously injured which seems amazing given the wide spread destruction.

It's a blessing it didn't happen the day before at the same time. I don't even want to think how bad that would have been...

It would have made the Outlaws game more exciting than it was...........................

[Cat-theotherwhitemeat]

I wonder if they'll fix the Metra or tear it down and start over. I'm hoping the latter. That would make Billings even more AWESOMER than before dude!!!

[AlphaGriz1]

The smart thing to do would be tear it down, there is significant structural damage according to an engineer friend here in Billings.

My guess is it will go something like this:

Owner: How much to rebuild?
Insurance company: 23 Million
Owner: Ok


Owne: I only have 13 million to spend, what can we do for that?
Construction company: We can put up chinese drywall, paint and put up some lights and half of the original signs.
Owner: Why cant you put up full sings, not just half?
Construction company: You know what I meant
Owner: If you only putting up half the signs I only have 11.8 million to spend
Construction company: Deal

[Billings Cat]

The smart thing to do would be tear it down, there is significant structural damage according to an engineer friend here in Billings.

My guess is it will go something like this:

Owner: How much to rebuild?
Insurance company: 23 Million
Owner: Ok


Owne: I only have 13 million to spend, what can we do for that?
Construction company: We can put up chinese drywall, paint and put up some lights and half of the original signs.
Owner: Why cant you put up full sings, not just half?
Construction company: You know what I meant
Owner: If you only putting up half the signs I only have 11.8 million to spend
Construction company: Deal

These little stories you tell would be so much interesting if they actually had a POINT. Of course, I figured your favorite part of Billings would be The Loft where you go trolling for "bears".

[longhorn_22]

Insured for 45 million. The city can get 100 million from other insurance funds.

[seataccat]

That is too bad about the Metra, I have fond old memories of that place. Cool concerts like the Statler Bros, Billy Squire and watching Jim McTaggart kick somebodies ass while playing hockey for the Bighorns.

[Cat-theotherwhitemeat]

The new Metra:



j/k

[AlphaGriz1]

The smart thing to do would be tear it down, there is significant structural damage according to an engineer friend here in Billings.

My guess is it will go something like this:

Owner: How much to rebuild?
Insurance company: 23 Million
Owner: Ok


Owne: I only have 13 million to spend, what can we do for that?
Construction company: We can put up chinese drywall, paint and put up some lights and half of the original signs.
Owner: Why cant you put up full sings, not just half?
Construction company: You know what I meant
Owner: If you only putting up half the signs I only have 11.8 million to spend
Construction company: Deal

These little stories you tell would be so much interesting if they actually had a POINT. Of course, I figured your favorite part of Billings would be The Loft where you go trolling for "bears".

Dont know about the Loft...................sounds like you do though.

[LTown Cat]

I know tornadoes in MT aren't unheard of, but I do not remember any touchdowns during my aware lifetime. Do any of you remember it happening before?

Didn't a tornado rip through Lewistown a few years ago? Or was that high "straight" winds?

That was a high wind storm, things were swirling around but there was no real funnel with that storm, It did quite a bit of damage in town, knocking down trees and such but not nearly as bad as this stome in billings did

No, it was a tornado--actually, apparently 2:

http://www.disasternews.net/news/articl ... icleid=339" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[cats2506]

I know tornadoes in MT aren't unheard of, but I do not remember any touchdowns during my aware lifetime. Do any of you remember it happening before?

Didn't a tornado rip through Lewistown a few years ago? Or was that high "straight" winds?

That was a high wind storm, things were swirling around but there was no real funnel with that storm, It did quite a bit of damage in town, knocking down trees and such but not nearly as bad as this stome in billings did

No, it was a tornado--actually, apparently 2:

http://www.disasternews.net/news/articl ... icleid=339" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I guess, but consider the source in that article. These are the same people that were on the radio saying that a telephone outage was caused by a computer virus, it was later determined that the same phone outage was caused by a telco substation that had ran out of fuel on its emergency backup generator.

I was in my shop and watched downtown during it and took a lot of pictures right after. I have seen a few tornados having spent 2 years in the middle of Oklahoma. I will still maintain that it was a high wind.

http://www.tein.net/photos/storm99/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cledus]

We live 4-5 blocks from Metra and luckily had no damage. Scary as hell though. Debris was flying over our house and the sound coming from the tornado was unbelievable.

Couldn't disagree with you more Alpha, Billings is fantastic.

The house I lived in for 5 years until last week was about 2 blocks from ProBuild and about .4 miles from Metra. Unbelievably, there was no damage and no flooding.

Hate to be the d-bag, but at least this will put a ton of people to work and help out the economy. Maybe we can get a new arena with some actual acoustics, too.

[Cledus]

I wonder if they'll fix the Metra or tear it down and start over. I'm hoping the latter. That would make Billings even more AWESOMER than before dude!!!

I was kind of thinking the same thing. Get something with at least 10,000 seats and some luxury boxes / suites. And acoustics.

[SonomaCat]

I saw in one article that the insurance on the arena was $75M (I think) and that the city's umbrella policy would put that up to something like $200M? It sure seems like they will need to start from scratch, so hopefully the insurance money covers what they need and they are able to rebuild it even better than before!

The crowd is "glass half full" today. I like that!

[KittieKop]

While its not the last word on the topic, I think the insurance engineers have looked and said it appears the building itself is still structurally sound, so it would appear there would not be a complete tear-down-and-rebuild. Of course, I would expect the city to see an opportunity, as do many folks, to get a new arena out of the deal. We'll have to see where the legal wrangling leads.

[Cat-theotherwhitemeat]

I talked with one of the county commissioners and it sounds like the shell of the building is still intact and they will go from there. Better acoustics are definitely a must along with a new sound system and a few other things. Really nice guy.

[maroon]

It needs some exits out of the upper parking lot to Bench and First Avenue North. You can get into the Metra, but sometimes you can't get out. It also need a bigger lobby/box office.