WASHINGTON — Washington’s National Cathedral will remain closed to visitors and worshippers through Saturday as crews continue to check damage from Friday’s high winds.
Kevin Eckstrom, a spokesman for the cathedral, said Friday’s weather conditions caused some minor wind damage, and that several pieces of scaffolding became dislodged from the central tower. But engineers, who were able to get outside to inspect the damage from Friday’s stormy weather, sad the structural integrity of the building remains solid.
The National Cathedral and its grounds were closed Friday morning due to concerns about the scaffolding; winds were gusting up to 65 mph. The scaffolding has been in place as part of the repair work that was required as a result of the earthquake in 2011.
Eckstrom said the grounds were closed out of an abundance of caution. Pointing up to the scaffolding on the central tower, he said, “That’s 30 stories up in the air, and if something were to come loose from the wind — we don’t want it hitting anybody on the ground.”
He said there’s still $22 million in work to be done to repair all the damage from the earthquake.
Watching the scaffolding sway ever so gently during Friday’s wind storm, Eckstrom said, “The Holy Spirit in the Bible is always in the form of wind — so maybe God’s trying to tell us something. You never know.”
