St. Paul Catholic Church Making Progress in Recovering from New Year’s Eve Tornado

in Fenton is still in recovery mode nearly two and half months after a tornado touched down on the parish campus Dec. 31.

The tornado was rated as an EF2 by the National Weather Service when it ripped through Fenton—and escalated to an EF3 by the time it hit nearby Sunset Hills. A tornado rated EF2 could have wind gusts up to 135 miles per hour, while an EF3 could have gusts up to 165 mph.

The tornado caused in the St. Louis area, a Fenton resident and parishioner at St. Paul. Margaret Birkes’ Honda CR-V was slammed into a wall on Highway 141 by the storm as she was driving near Dierbergs. She was taken to St. Anthony’s Medical Center and died 10 days later of her injuries. She was 70 years old.

Most of the storm’s damage in Fenton occurred at St. Paul, where sections of the church's copper roof were blown off, the rectory nearly destroyed and several large trees uprooted. Sixty-two windows on the church’s school building were also broken.

Monsignor Michael Dieckmann, St. Paul’s pastor, said all the repair work is covered by the church’s insurance and is being professionally repaired by contractors. They are self-insured through the Archdiocese of St. Louis, which also handled contractor bids for the work.

Students at only missed one day of class because of the storm. Dieckmann said Christmas vacation was extended by one day so broken glass could be removed from classrooms and textbooks. He said the broken windows were immediately boarded up and replaced two weeks later.

Repairs to the church and rectory are going much slower because of the harsh winter weather. “You can’t roof when it’s snowing,” said Dieckmann.

The church has rented a nearby house in the Forest Knoll Subdivision for its two priests, Dieckmann and Rev. James Holbrook, while the rectory is being rebuilt. The parish office, which was also in the rectory, has been temporarily relocated to the church basement.

“The roof was lifted off by the storm. They had to take the ceiling out and replace the tresses,” said Dieckmann. “This whole wall was leaning,” he told Patch on a tour of the rectory’s reconstruction. In one part of the office, he pointed out where Holbrook had been working on a computer. “The ceiling and florescent lights came down right where he was sitting.”

Dieckmann is a trained weather spotter and was keeping an eye on the approaching storm. He and Holbrook, who were the only two people at the church on New Year’s Eve, were able to reach the basement before the tornado hit.

As much of the rectory has been saved as possible, including major kitchen appliances and computer equipment. Some portions of the building were rebuilt from the ground up, while other sections just needed  fresh drywall and flooring. The whole building had the ceiling replaced.

The heating and air conditioning system was replaced and new kitchen cabinets are on the way. Outside, pallets of brick wait to be installed on the exterior and the front porch is awaiting new columns. Dieckmann hopes to return to the rectory by the end of March and says the office should be in place a few weeks later.

“Everything was destroyed. It was mainly water damage,” said Sandy Mayer, a parish secretary. She said all the office’s furniture was thrown out. The staff returned New Year’s Day and with the help of parishioners, salvaged what they could and moved it to a meeting room in the church basement. The room is now crammed with desks and shelves of offices supplies.

“Everyone has adapted extremely well,” said Pat Aman, another parish secretary. She joked that at least they hadn’t gotten around to cleaning the office carpet before the storm. “For a year we were talking about cleaning the carpet, but we kept putting it off.”

Now she and Mayer are working with an interior designer on selecting new carpet and furnishings for the office.

The secretaries both praised the help of their fellow church members after the storm.

“At 9 a.m. New Year’s Day we had tons and tons of parishioners helping out,” said Mayer.

“We almost had too much help!” agreed Aman.

Dieckmann said only the church’s roof was damaged and that water damage to restrooms and the cry room are still waiting for repairs. Those rooms will need new ceiling tile and some drywall, but contractors are waiting until after the roof is completely fixed before working on the interior. He said the storm only caused the church to miss one afternoon mass, and that they were able to hold services the evening after the tornado.

Dieckmann said that church volunteers will repair the landscaping in the spring.