Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Incredibly strong winds on Saturday caused significant structural damage to the North wall of the Great Northern grain elevator, which is currently owned by ADM Milling Co. headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Wind gusts up to 71 miles-per-hour ravaged the Buffalo area, which opened up a large hole in the outer wall that exposes the steel bins inside the grain elevator. It is the second time the grain elevator has suffered damage such as this, with wind also damaging the structure in 1907.
The Great Northern grain elevator has been at 250 Ganson St. since 1897, and was once the largest grain elevator in the country, located in the "Old First Ward".
So what comes next for one of the most historical industrial structures in Buffalo?
"At this point, [ADM] put a fence around it. There's some corrugated steel hanging from there," said Buffalo's Commissioner of Permits and Inspections, James Comerford. "There's some issues that I'm concerned about the wall continuing to fall down. There's some safety issues, so we have to address this very shortly."
Comerford says he had a meeting with representatives from ADM on Monday and asked them to do an assessment of the damage to the structure. He expects to have a report back to him by Thursday.
While Comerford waits for ADM's report, a drone inspection was conducted Tuesday morning to further assess the damage from a different point of view. Once the pictures and video from the inspection has been put together, Comerford will review footage and, at some point, make an assessment and a decision as to what to do with the building.
"I won't see the drone pictures until later [Tuesday] afternoon," Comerford said. "We've hired a drone company, we hired them last year, and they've been doing drone work for us and they've been great. They access higher buildings that we can't get to, and this is just the perfect example of why we use them, because we obviously can't get up there to see the total damage."
As for the potential of punishment for ADM failing to maintain the building's condition, Comerford does not see, nor is considering a fine for the company at this time.
"They actually came in last year, I believe before preservation, they wanted to demolish it. At the time, the preservation denied it," Comerford explained. "Now with the conditions and the potential safety hazards, we're going to have to re-assess and determine the nature of the damage, and we'll go from there."
Comerford adds that any repairs or demolition plans for the Great Northern grain elevator is all on ADM to pay for. He says the City of Buffalo has "no responsibility other than the concern for the safety of the people around the structure."
While Comerford and the city waits for ADM's report and the footage from the drone reports, movements to repairing the Great Northern grain elevator are already heating up.
Director at Campaign for Greater Buffalo, Tim Tielman says that restoration efforts need to take place in order to save the historic structure.
"It's not standing in anybody's way. It could be restored. It must be restored. It's a City of Buffalo landmark," Tielman said with Brian Mazurowski and Joe Beamer on WBEN. "It's a fantastic piece of our industrial and social history, and we simply can't let it go."
"It's not, 'Geez, the Great Northern is great or Concrete Central is great.' It's the combination of all of them along the city's ship canal, along the Buffalo River. ... "[Great Northern is] the first elevator that people on the lake, a sailor or a lake freighter is going to see on the horizon."
With a potential decision on the grain elevator pending, Tielman believes that it should be up to the city of Buffalo and Mayor Byron Brown to save the building from a company that has not done enough to upkeep the structure over the years.
"Everybody who walks by, drives by can look at the elevator and understand that the owner hasn't maintained it a lick in over 30 years," Tielman said. "We have an owner who has been grossly negligent, and really the fate of this is in Mayor Brown's hands."
When reaching out to the Mayor's office, they said the final decision for the future of the Great Northern grain elevator is in the hands of Comerford.
You can listen to Tielman's entire interview during "BMaz and Beamer" below:
