Virginia Beach church steeple ripped off during weekend storm removed

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Engineers will work to figure out whether a steeple ripped off a church in Virginia Beach during last weekend's storm can be returned to the top of the building.

Just before noon on Saturday, a newly-married couple walked outside Galilee Episcopal Church and embraced. Feet away, the church's steeple lay ruined, wedged between the church and the apartment building next door.

The temptation to take pictures in front of it proved to be too much.

"I feel like it's good luck! There's something special here happening. We blew the steeple off the church," Shannon Temple told News 3 while standing next to her new husband, Robert.

Needless to say, it was not the scene Rev. Andrew Buchanan pictured for the Temples and the second couple he was scheduled to marry on October 1.

"The show must go on," Buchanan told News 3 shortly before the first ceremony inside the Pacific Avenue church.

Buchanan says he got the call Friday evening that the steeple had come down when high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ian were moving through the area.

Though he came to see the damage for himself, he didn't get a good look until the next morning.

"It's hard to see it off, but I'm very grateful it landed where it did," said Buchanan. "There's no injury, no death, limited structural damage. There's a lot to be grateful for here."

On, Thursday, October 6, 2022, a crane removed the steeple and carried it over the church before placing it in the parking lot on the other side.

Dean Hills, property manager for Holly Hill Apartments, the building next door that was struck by the steeple, tells News 3 his building had some minor damages to the roof. He and his residents are grateful no one was hurt.

"It could have been a whole lot worse. Actually, when the steeple came down you can tell it toppled and hit and put a hole in the roof there, hit again, and apparently, it just rolled and nestled between trees," Rogers said. "It came down hard because the first three feet of the steeple itself was in the ground, pointing the other direction. With the amount of energy, it could've gone through a wall or a window and hurt somebody, so it was definitely a lucky fall."