Stage collapse at Indiana State Fair
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Stage collapse at Indiana State Fair
CNN Link
I assume these creations are aluminium framing with lots of canvas draped over them ???
Our prayers are with all the victims and their families.
How awful.:( Many prayers.
I actually waited on one of the concert goers mother last night. He called her right away because he didn't want her to see it on the news and get worried.
He said people were pretty much frantic and trampling on each other:(
How awful!!!
How awful, and how tragic.
On the other hand, Wom, The USA can get some wild winds in the midwest, that either precede tornadoes or don't quite classify as tornadoes. It really doesn't matter how well something is constructed.
What types of winds does Australia have?
I hear that the State Police tried to warn the fair goers and many didn't take heed.
No, they were steel.
I also heard that the stage area was the only place in the fairgrounds that had this particular strength of wind gust. Estimated to have been 70-75 mph - like a Category 1 hurricane or EF1 tornado.Quote:
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels called the collapse "freakish," saying at the news conference that a storm was anticipated but the blast of wind that whipped through the grandstand area was unexpected.
There were very strong winds ahead of the storms that came through
Indianapolis. I was sitting in my living room watching a movie when I heard
a loud slam against my front door. Smokey jumped up from the floor. When I
looked out side I could see trees nearly bent over in the wind. My neighbors
privacy fence blew down. This wind event ushered in the thunder storms
& rain that followed. They did update the death total to 5 this morning with
some people still in critical condition today.
The riggers who put up stages are very experienced with the task and for outdoors venues, those stages are put up and taken down many times over the course of a tour.
I have been to tons of outdoors and indoors concerts and never saw anything even close to what happened in this case.
I think the worst weather I saw at an outdoor concert was rain....and even then the stage had a canopy over the area where the band played.
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That same storm passed thru Louisville and completely wrecked the area.
We were going to the super when the radio gave the EBS (Emergency Broadcast System) warning about a storm off to the west. As I walked into the store I noticed a wall of purple clouds in the distance.
I had never seen THAT color in the sky before and commented on it.
We walked into the store and about 20 minutes later the lights flickered. We walked out to the lot and the ground was drenched. A tree came down on the power lines and crushed part of the fence in the backyard..
That was about 6 p.m. on Saturday and the power has been out since then.
Thank goodness for generators and extension cords!!!!