Dust rises from what's left of McCollum Hall on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016. High winds swept the dust beyond the site, where crews are crushing and hauling off rubble from the dorm, which was imploded in November 2015.

What do you get when you cross 50 mph Midwestern gusts and a pile of rubble from a 220,000-square-foot building in the process of being crushed into gravel on top of a hill?

To quote that famous Kansas song, “Dust in the Wind” — and lots of it.

The kind of dust that creates a visible haze and leaves grit in your eyes and mouth was flying Thursday afternoon around the McCollum Hall demolition site at 1800 Engel Road, the southernmost tract on the crest of Daisy Hill. Ellsworth Hall and its parking lot, immediately downwind from McCollum, bore the brunt of the cloud.

The same high winds are expected all day Friday according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. The Weather Service issued a “red flag warning” — with gusts up to 50 mph possible — for our area on Thursday and predicted high winds to continue through Friday evening.

Are construction crews doing what they can to mitigate the dust?

“As a general rule, contractors take care to water construction sites or take other preventative measures when it’s windy,” KU spokesman Joe Monaco said. “When we know that strong winds are forecast, we’ll often call the contractors — or visit with them on site — to remind them to water the sites.”

Monaco said KU’s Office of Design and Construction Management did remind contractors to water on Thursday, and also that the McCollum contractor put a dust collection device on their rock crusher, which is hoped to help.

I also checked with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to find out what state regulations there may be regarding construction dust but unfortunately didn’t get through to the person with answers by deadline.

Around campus, a backhoe tearing down the latest Stouffer Place apartment building was creating a dust cloud, too, but nothing the size of McCollum’s. At the Earth Energy and Environment Center (EEEC) construction site, 15th Street and Naismith Drive, tarps were covering large swaths of the exposed dirt and gravel on the site. Though a few flapping tarps had escaped their tie-downs, most seemed to be staying put and keeping dust at bay.

On Daisy Hill, there was a hose pumping water from a hydrant onto the McCollum demolition site. Although, to be honest, the hose appeared to be fighting a losing battle.

Hopefully the dust will settle (bad pun intended) when the wind calms down in a couple of days. I talked to nearly 10 Ellsworth residents who told me they had not been bothered by dust since McCollum was imploded Nov. 25 — although Thursday afternoon, coming and going in their neighborhood definitely wasn’t pleasant.

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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.