TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — Troy’s Parks and Recreation Center is still recovering from tornado damage.
What was meant to be a safe place unexpectedly turned into a front-row seat for people seeking refuge from the storm. As the storm raged outside, rec center staff had to act quickly.
“I was here probably 15 minutes after it happened really,” said Facility Coordinator Dalton Fuller. “People were shaken up, I think, a little bit, but nobody was running around crazy. Dan [Smith] and the staff did a great job having everybody in the locker rooms when it happened, so like, no matter what, people were safe.”
Once the storm moved past, staff members got their first look at the damage. Adult Sports Coordinator Brian Meadows was one of the first people to see the damage.
“David Dickie, Dalton, and I went to the fields to kind of see exactly how bad everything was. That’s when we noticed a lot of the light poles down, Scoreboards, fences, it was pretty tragic as far as we are concerned because, without our fields, you know we’re in trouble.”
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Now, nearly two weeks later, the recreation center team now is in full recovery mode.
“We just have last night got the approval to start the cleanup process,” Meadows explained. “Now we’re going to spend the next couple days picking everything up, then we’ll start kind of assessing everything that we need and start the process over.”
The Health and Wellness Center and multipurpose rooms are available for use, but the center’s two pools, gymnasium, and over half the sports plex remain closed.
To stay up to date on the center’s recovery efforts and to see what’s available for use you can follow their Facebook at Troy Parks and Recreation.
