Felled steeple won’t dampen Christmas spirit
Services go on at Portsmouth church despite storm’s havoc
PORTSMOUTH — A strong gust of wind blew a 51-year-old steeple off of a church in the Cradock neighborhood Friday afternoon.
The 35-foot structure was ripped from its base at the Cradock Baptist Church about 2:45 p.m. It ended up straddling the street and sidewalk below.
“The wind just really picked up,” church member Mike Bracy said Saturday afternoon as he fired up the building’s heat for a Christmas Eve service.
Wind gusts in the region reached up to 60 mph Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service reported, as part of a winter storm sweeping across the country. Gusts in Portsmouth reached 50-55 mph.
The church on Afton Parkway was founded in 1919. But the current sanctuary was built in 1971 — with the steeple installed at that time.
That structure — the base, steeple, spire and a cross at
the top — was more than 35 feet in length. While the base was steel, the rest was fiberglass, Pastor David L. Phillips said.
“Over the years, the base metal — where it hooked on — had deteriorated,” Phillips said. “Water had crept it, and it rusted, and it was probably just a matter of time.”
Phillips, a retired Army chaplain who’s led Cradock Baptist for 11 years, called it “a blessing that nobody got hurt.”
“It was a blessing that it didn’t hit a car,” he said. “It came down, hit a sidewalk and rolled into the street.”
The remnants of the steeple’s old cross, now shattered in several pieces, were still inside the structure’s destroyed base Saturday afternoon.
Erin Bracy, Cradock Baptist’s event planner and youth director, said she and others had left about two hours before the steeple came crashing down.
Bracy said nativity celebrations and several Christmas concerts have been held in that area on recent weekends.
“Thank goodness we weren’t all there,” Bracy said. “It fell at the best possible time, and in the best possible spot.”
It was also a good thing, she added, that it didn’t fall in another direction and strike the church building.
After the steeple fell, church member Laura
Somers said she and three men — her husband and two men who stopped their cars to help — lifted one end of the steeple and “rolled” the structure onto the sidewalk while negotiating around a street sign.
It appears to have landed cross first; it was found across a street, about 50 feet from the rest of the steeple.
“We found the cross in the median,” she said.
Phillips said the church will replace the steeple. He has filed an insurance claim, with an adjuster expected to come by early next week.
While there’s some daylight coming into the church attic now, there’s none coming into the main service area.
Christmas Eve services went forward at Cradock Baptist early Saturday evening, with Christmas Day services scheduled as planned at 11 a.m. today.
“A little bit of wind and a steeple coming off doesn’t stop the celebration of Christmas,” Mike Bracy said. “We still gotta have a party for Jesus’ birthday.”