Local church steeple topples due to strong winds

WARREN COUNTY — Strong winds caused part of a church steeple to fall over in Warren County Sunday night.

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As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, the damage occurred at Grace Baptist Church.

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Butler and Warren counties were under multiple Tornado Warnings Sunday.

The National Weather Service confirmed on Monday that at least three EF-0 tornadoes touched down in those counties.

Kent Swigert works for maintenance at the church.

“Yeah, there was high winds. There was a lot of rain, thunder, lightning,” Swigert said.

Swigert rode out the storm, where a lot of people around the Miami Valley did Sunday night.

“We were watching the news and getting ready to go down to the basement for protection,” Swigert said.

He said he thinks the wind knocked over the steeple around 11 p.m.

“This is what that steeple looks like from the parking lot, toppled by those winds. And I want to show you right here, crews have brought in this big crane to life the steeple off the roof to start the cleanup work,” Swigert said. “Fortunately, it landed on a building that’s surrounding the steeple and limited the damage. Of course, the steeples are a total loss, but we’ve got insurance people.”

Sky 7 captured video of people on the roof Monday, working to figure out exactly how the cleanup and recovery was going to look.

“And we’ve contacted a steeple company that originally put the steeple up. And so they’re in the works of creating a new steeple,” Swigert said.

Luckily, no one was injured.

“Very fortunate, the Lord watched over us,” Swigert said.

A spokesperson from the church said this will not impact services for the weekend, but there may be parking changes to keep people away from some of the damage.

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