Here’s how the Andover YMCA will be rebuilt after tornado — and how long it will take

There’s movement at the Dr. Jim Farha Andover YMCA, but not from the people officials hope to welcome back after an EF-3 tornado ripped through the building on April 29.

YMCA members won’t be able to use the whole facility again for more than 18 months.

On Wednesday, construction workers used a crane to pull a massive air conditioning unit off the roof. Below, metal braces stabilized a concrete wall near where the entrance once was. On the other side of the wall is a huge concrete slab that once held offices and a children’s center. That area is the third of the building that had to be demolished. The other two-thirds have to be completely remodeled.

“It’s going to be like a brand new YMCA,” Greater Wichita YMCA President and CEO Ronn McMahon said while wearing a hard hat in a shaded area just beyond the old entrance. There’s no roof where the entrance once was. “It’s down to concrete and steel and then pretty much build back from there.”

He said the water park will have new features and something new will replace the 45-foot rock wall that was underused. The rock wall has since been half torn out. He said the new feature will be special to Andover YMCA.

“We are working on some cool concepts,” he said, declining to hint at what it might be.

The water park is expected to open next summer and the rest of the YMCA will welcome guests in spring 2024.

“I’d love it to go faster,” he said. “We’d like to be done tomorrow. It’s a massive project.”

McMahon said the YMCA cost over $20 million to build and will cost even more to rebuild. It is by far the single-most damaged expensive building to replace.

Estimates are that the tornado caused structure damage to 180 homes in Andover and rural Butler County and 22 in rural Sedgwick County, totaling more than $37 million in damage, according to Butler County Emergency Management Director Keri Korthals.

She said the estimate is based on appraisal values, which are much lower than the actual replacement value, and doesn’t include many homes that would have had minor damage for things like roof shingles.

The tornado started in rural Sedgwick County around 8:10 p.m. and then moved up through densely populated areas of Andover and out into the county. About half a dozen people had injuries, most minor.

The worse injury happened in rural Sedgwick County. A woman in her mid-60s broke her back when the tornado lifted up her mobile home, turned it and dropped it.

The tornado then moved into Andover.

In Andover, it hit a housing development, then heavily damaged the Prairie Creek Elementary School just in front of the YMCA. Construction workers were on the roof doing repairs at the elementary school on Wednesday.

After hitting the school, the tornado headed straight at the YMCA, hitting the front entrance.

About nine employees and 30 other people were in the YMCA when the tornado hit. They got into the storm shelters near the entrance right before the tornado hit.

“They said they felt the pressure drop as they were closing the door,” McMahon said.

When they came out of the shelters, it looked like a war zone. Part of the roof near the entrance had collapsed, water was shooting down out of a broken spout and there was debris everywhere.

Several cars were flung up against the buildings. A couple mangled vehicles were still in the parking lot on Wednesday while the owners worked with insurance to have them moved, a YMCA official said.

About the building still standing and not needing to be completely demolished, McMahon said: “It’s just well built.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 6:29 PM.