Washington National Cathedral set to reopen for 9/11 anniversary weekend

From ENS-

Washington National Cathedral, closed since it sustained damage following an Aug. 23 magnitude-5.8 earthquake, is set to reopen for a series of events planned for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The building suffered further damage over the weekend from Hurricane Irene, whose high winds caused loose masonry to fall from the building and further displaced some of the pinnacles, said Joseph Alonso, the cathedral's mason foreman, during a live webcast on Aug. 29.

Several teams of architects and structural engineers have been called in to assess the damage to the building, Andrew Hullinger, the cathedral's senior director for finance and administration, said during the webcast. "The engineers tell us that they believe the cathedral building is structurally sound," he said. "The bad news is that we have sustained some serious damage to the exterior and the pinnacles [and]…some compression fracturing to the buttresses.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80263_129586_ENG_HTM.htm