Crowne Plaza (Executive West) Damaged by High Winds
Friday, July 20, 2012
As reported by WAVE-3 in Louisville:
The National Weather Service confirms 60-plus mile per hour winds near the airport.
Those strong winds hit the Crowne Plaza hotel around 7:15 Thursday night, that's where the wind sheared off a huge section of the hotel's roof and it's façade.
More than 200 guest rooms were cleared on the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th floors as a sprinkler system was hit and they suffered water damage.
Guests were shuttled to the Galt House or other hotels.
The roof and its wood and shingle façade was scattered across the parking lot. As cars were crunched, Gordon Schubert and his wife were right in the middle of it all, " We were sitting in the car, and then we couldn't get out because we were scared of electric lines," Schubert told us.
Rita Reedy, a hotel spokeswoman with the Al J.Schneider Company, told WAVE 3 news that with 100 percent occupancy they are thankful no guests were hurt but, there was a lot of property damage to both the hotel and to the cars in the parking lot.
Many of the guests were in town for the National Junior Angus Convention across the street at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center.
Those who had water damage were safely escorted to their rooms to get their belongings out.
Mike Dull, a guest from Maryland told WAVE 3 News, the bad weather seems to be following his group around. "It's weird," he said, "Because of all the mass destruction that's happened in the last couple of years, and we were in part of that stuff that hit Virginia three weeks ago. "
Michael Wolf, who's part of a flight crew from Minnesota was staying on the top floor of the hotel. Luckily, his group decided to go out for pizza when the storm hit. "We were totally surprised when we got back to see all this," he told us, "We are so lucky, somebody is looking out for us."
Hotel guests with cars that were in the rear parking lot were not allowed to go in the area Thursday night due to the damage.
Click here for the story on WAVE, including pictures.
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