A Northern Virginia church is scrambling to find a place for its congregants to pray and gather after its roof collapsed earlier this week from heavy snow.
The St. George Tigrai Orthodox Tewahdo Church in Mt. Vernon is surrounded by red and yellow caution tape that first responders placed Monday evening and its parking lot is empty.
Fairfax County Fire and Rescue said it responded to the area around 5:20 p.m. Monday. They identified it as a “partially collapsed two-story commercial building” and found “roof and floor failure,” according to a post on X.
Nobody was inside at the time of the collapse, the county said, and there weren’t any injuries.
Ayalneh Berhe, the church’s finance and administration coordinator, said adding to the issues with the collapsed roof, they’re dealing with the main building’s walls “leaning forward towards the front.”
Berhe said the space was purchased during the pandemic in 2020, and it’s a place where over 100 Ethiopian congregants gather.
“We don’t have any place to pray, to do our prayers,” he said. “We are looking at options.”
It’s unlikely the roof can be repaired, Berhe said, because of the way one side of the building is leaning. Nobody has been allowed to enter the spaces, and building engineers will be tasked with inspecting it.
Religious materials, computers and instruments are still inside.
“We don’t have a place to pray, that’s number one,” Berhe said. “Second, we are also thinking, how much will be the damage?”
An outdoor tent used as a gathering space for the community to have breakfast, coffee or tea after services conclude also collapsed, Berhe said.
The church has launched a fundraiser to help out with costs from the incident. Anyone seeking details can call or email using the contact information on its website, he said.
“People are calling us to know the story, what happened,” Berhe said. “And we’ll see. We’ll settle anywhere who provides us space temporarily. Eventually, we want our church to be rebuilt and resume our function there.”
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