Tornado tears through Ohio’s Ursuline College

An F1 tornado packing winds upwards of 110 miles an hour ripped through the campus of Ohio's Ursuline College on Saturday, seriously damaging a new athletic center and causing structural damage to other buildings. 

Located in Pepper Pike, about 13 miles east of Cleveland, the storm began at Ursuline around 3:35 AM Saturday, according to the Associated Press. The tornado would eventually travel 1.3 miles, and would reach a length of 100 to 200 yards. 

Read more from GlobalPost: Oklahoma tornado was EF-5 level, strongest category 

“The blessing is that there was no loss of life or injury," said college president Diana Stano in a press release on the college website, which describes the storm damage. 

Due to summer holidays, only about five students were on campus at the time out of the usual 1,500, and they were located well away from the damaged gymnasium. 

The roof of the new O’Brien Athletic Center was lifted off and a wall collapsed, wrote Cleveland.com, with extensive structural damage. It remains unclear if the facility will be able to be salvaged. 

Ursuline was accepted as a Division II school for college athletics only last week, said Stano to the Associated Press. "Now we don't have a place to play," she said.

According to the college website, the campus will remain closed on Saturday and Sunday as the damage is assesed. The university is working on a recovery plan, and intends to begin a disaster relief fund. 

Ursuline College was founded in 1871 as one of the first women's colleges in the US, and remains one of the oldest still-operational educational facilities in the state. Known in particular for its nursing programs, Ursuline now admits men, although they make up only about 10 percent of the student body.