Normally in the business, it is customary to tell a performer to "break a leg" or "bring the house down." No one ever means it literally, so when it happened after Sara's performance, it all seemed so ominous. Saturday night, Sara Bareilles had just completed her opening for Sugarland and had received a nice ovation. Sugarland had yet to take the stage and the crowd was anxious for the feature entertainment to begin. The skies were starting to get dark. Now I have myself been a fan of different things in my life. And I suspect that I am not alone in not being a fan of weatherman when their forecast threatens to spoil the fun. However in hindsight, I suspect Indiana State fair goers wish they had followed the weatherman's advice a little more closely on Saturday evening.
Despite shock and surprise, the fact remains that forecasters warned of heavy rain and strong winds nearly two hours before the storm that collapsed of the stage Saturday night. Furthermore, officials had been on stage four minutes before the gust of wind to warn the crowd to seek shelter. The National Weather Service estimated winds at only 60 to 70 mph. While admittedly this is considered "high winds," concert officials still seem surprised that the metal scaffolding twisted and then fell into the "Sugarpit."
This tragedy killed five and hurt many more of Sugarland's best fans. Engineers took photos and studied the wreckage on Sunday for the cause of the failure. While engineers were busy calculating the force necessary to cause the fatigued metal to buckle, Gov. Mitch Daniels was making speeches as if he were an engineer assessing damage control: "It's not clear to me at this stage how anyone could have foreseen a sudden, highly localized gust of wind in one place." Video captures the steel scaffolding giving way, sending stage lights and metal onto fans closest to the stage.
Sara Bareilles and Sugarland cancelled their scheduled performance Sunday night at the Iowa State Fair. Jennifer Nettles, of Sugarland, posted: "there are no words to process a moment of this magnitude and gravity."
Undoubtedly, additional investigation utilizing engineers and lawyers will result in finding the words that Jennifer Nettles seems to lack and explanations that the Governor seems to ignore.
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20 comments:
so what you're saying is, there may be lawsuits?
Pretty obvious there will be talk of lawsuits!
This article is too cold!
Its not about warm and fuzzy, that is for sure. It is about responsibility for one's own actions and inactions!
I never really thought about showbiz comments. In hindsight it is indeed a little too ironic, don't you think? It's like rain on your wedding day. Or the good advice that you just didn't take...
Well thats gotta suck…being all brewed up, kicking back and waiting for your favorite band to hit the stage and suddenly the stage falls on you!!
Kinda reminds me of when much younger and working in a factory when a tornado hit the building one Friday afternoon, knocked a huge brick wall down on the workers. We spent hours digging people out from the ruble...two were killed and I found one of them. I will never forget how he looked with the dried blood around his nose, mouth, and ears.
It was around 73 at the Midway Manufacturing Plant that eventually went on to develop Pack-Man a few years after I left
I don’t know what the specifications would be for a stage like that, but I would think that if it was intended to stay up for more than one performance it should be able to withstand wind gusts of 60-70 mps, especially with the type of weather such a stage would be expected to endure in the Midwest. 60-70 mph wind gusts happen all the time during thunderstorms around here. Unless it was some kind of microburst with much higher winds, I think someone will be held responsible, and it could be something as simple as a worker forgetting to tighten a few bolts properly.
That stage did look extremely top heavy to me, but probably more to do with the angle of the video and the way the stage twisted during the fall to the ground.
...I can relate with the people who jumped in to help the injured, there is an adrenalin rush that drives a determination to help with total disregard to ones self safety, you run first to where you hear people crying.
Just seen a better video of this stage falling right after I posted. It looks to me like they tarped the top (the blue fabric on top) over the aluminum structure causing it to collect wind like a parachute, lifting it up and pushing it to the side slightly before it fell.
Something like that could have sheered bolts in two.
Than again, some of those stage structures use pins instead of bolts to save time with assembly and teardown where speed is of importance, especially for the one-night gigs.
I see that the brother of the stage hand who died was critical that the stage had not been inspected!
Anony 8:49 AM …I have been involved with a couple of stage set-ups and I can tell you no one inspects them, not the ones I worked on, nor did I see it happen the many times I videoed live performances. We, or who ever is setting up the stage are trusted to insure that that stage is installed properly. Yes there is insurance that is usually covered under the promoter’s policy, but I’m not so sure that even a building inspector would know what to look for unless skilled with the many type of stages and their specifications.
The stages I set up had different hardware for different types of set-ups. There were pins for short term, thought some weight bearing structure had to be bolted. Than there were bolts for long term, or threatening weather conditions. I would think that that stage was bolted since it would have been intended to stay up for the entire duration of the state fair.
I’m thinking that tarped roof was the culprit, should have been some kind of venting so the wind could have passed through it instead of lifting it up. Now when installing such a roof it is secured tightly, specifically because one does not want the wind to blow the tarps off. There needs to be some kind of torque designed securing method that will break away should the wind speed climb above a specific speed. After this disaster, who ever designs one will become extremely rich in a short time…have any ideas?
I’m thinking a zip tie for installation speed, that is designed to break after 40-50 mph gusts.
Also, temporary stages are not secured to the ground in any way, the weight of the stage is expected to hold it down and in place…if there is any type of ground securing method it would not amount to much more than an aluminum stake…like a tent stake!
If there are other methods I have not seen them.
One stage I helped set up was not much more that folding tables latched together for the deck. But once latched together was extremely secure and stable (rockers like to jump around). The lighting and roof structure was the similar aluminum three pole triangle truss (not sure if that is the right technical term) one sees in the stage at the fair that fell. It was secured to the deck with bolts than sections of the truss slipped into each other and were pinned, this way one can combine trusses for different roof and lighting heights. Similar blue tarps were used for the roof, mostly to keep the sun off the stage, they were tied tightly to the aluminum roof truss. These tarps were about 8’ X 12’ strips and several were used to cover a 12’ X 20’ stage, so they were overlapped and secured to eachother every 4’ with fabric ties…this gave venting for any wind gusts. Some tarps have snaps every 12” and are very secure from rain, but have no venting for wind gusts.
i sense a video documentary coming on...
Like were all standing there waiting for sure land to take stage and boom it all falls
Off topic but here is a link to the Nancy Grace page about Lauren Spierer. Someone mentioned that they monitor the importance of a story by the hits it receives...so hit it often.
http://nancygrace.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/15/missing-indiana-university-student%E2%80%99s-parents-plead-for-new-information/?hpt=ng_mid
(Undoubtedly, additional investigation utilizing engineers and lawyers will result in finding the words that Jennifer Nettles seems to lack and explanations that the Governor seems to ignore. )
LOL...well said
Ditto what Video Guy said...
Well written.... send in the sharks... I mean lawyers.
You think the lawyers would let the families mourn before they go on the attack. As I recall, Indiana has a 30 day wait before lawyers are supposed to contact victims. Hopefully, all lawyers keep this in mind before sending letters of solicitation.
I don’t think that letters of solicitation would have any effect in a situation like this, word of mouth reference will carry more weight. A trusted reference with a successful record against insurance companies would be something I would look for.
Well video guy, the sharks (I mean lawyers) are likely licking their chops over the 50 victim's potential law suits.
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