National Cathedral needs `tens of millions' in quake repairs
c. 2011 USA Today
WASHINGTON (RNS) The Washington National Cathedral will need "tens of
millions of dollars" over "numerous years" to repair extensive damage to
the nation's second-largest church following an Aug. 23 earthquake,
church officials said Tuesday (Oct. 4).
The landmark church requires $25 million "just to get to June 2012,
for the first phase of work and to resume worship and programming. We
know it will ultimately be much more," says Richard Weinberg, a
spokesman for the cathedral.
The Episcopal cathedral, which advertises itself as "a spiritual
home for all," has been the setting for presidential funerals and other
major national events. An estimated 35,000 worshippers and visitors
arrive there every month.
Its stone-upon-stone, hand-crafted Gothic architecture took 83
years, from 1907 to 1990, to complete.
In the earthquake, the central tower sustained damage on three of
its four corner spires, and three capstones fell off. There are cracks
on some of the upper floors and in some of the flying buttresses, a
distinguishing feature of Gothic architecture, in the oldest portion of
the building.
Work crews have attempted to stabilize the damage, but have been
delayed by windy, rainy weather and a crane that toppled over on Sept.
7, damaging two other buildings in the complex.
The cathedral is waiting for the same team of experts that has been
rappelling down the quake-damaged Washington Monument to finish there
and move a few miles to the hilltop cathedral.
The cathedral is scheduled to reopen on Nov. 12 for the consecration
of the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the new Episcopal bishop of Washington.
