BALLWIN, Mo. – Work crews finished boarding up broken windows facing the pool area of The Pointe at Ballwin Commons on Monday.
Saturday’s severe weather blew several windows out of their frames. No one was injured at the recreation center, even though a pool party was scheduled to take place during the storm.
“We’re thankful everyone is safe,” said Dustin Boice, a Ballwin resident who rented the pool Saturday to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.
He credited the staff at the recreation center for calmly taking the right steps when severe weather approached. Parents and children were led to a locker room area when a tornado warning was issued.
“Within a minute and a half, we were hunkered down in the locker rooms,” Boice said.
He said a short time later, glass shattered into a pool area where kids would have likely been playing.
“It was an unbelievable job by the staff, and the City of Ballwin should be proud,” Boice said.
City leaders have yet to determine how long repairs will take, but hope the pool can reopen sometime in the next couple of weeks. There was no damage beyond the pool area, and the rest of the recreation center remains open and accessible.
“Our swim lessons start in two or three weeks, so hopefully it will be back to normal by then,” said Allie Vining, a Ballwin resident, and parent.
She and her three children watched workers board up the reaction center’s windows Monday. Vining said the broken windows are a reminder to heed severe weather warnings. She said that’s exactly what her family did on Saturday when they headed downstairs.
Vining’s 5-year-old daughter reminded her family that windows could be a danger and asked if they needed to get away from their basement windows as they took cover.
Vining told her daughter, “Yes, we do.”
