MJW155 Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Strong winds at the state fair caused a stage to collaspe on people. Looks pretty bad. This one shows the thing falling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baroclinic_instability Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/23105-august-12-severe-weather/page__st__160 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJHurricane Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Very shaken by this...I am a stagehand of IATSE local 21 here in Jersey, have worked many outdoor stages like this....today our brothers in Indiana experienced the ultimate nightmare...and at least one truss spotlight operator...(guy who climbs into the truss of the roof where a spotlight is mounted) is amongst the fatalities. Hard to tell from the video but seems like this stage may have had wind panels stage left, stage right and upstage...if that was the case all of that wind energy had a huge surface area to push against...some of it had already failed as well as a substantial section of the roof panels....before the entire structure collapses diagonally from upstage right to downstage left....also sending the PA arrays crashing towards the crowd. These things are rated to sustain high winds, but at the end of the day they are temporary structures. On many of these stages these wind panels can be dropped in relatively quickly if it is known that high winds are in the area....but a sudden downburst doesn't really give you any lead time. Terrible terrible tragedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthlight Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 holy sh** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJHurricane Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Very shaken by this...I am a stagehand of IATSE local 21 here in Jersey, have worked many outdoor stages like this....today our brothers in Indiana experienced the ultimate nightmare...and at least one truss spotlight operator...(guy who climbs into the truss of the roof where a spotlight is mounted) is amongst the fatalities. Hard to tell from the video but seems like this stage may have had wind panels stage left, stage right and upstage...if that was the case all of that wind energy had a huge surface area to push against...some of it had already failed as well as a substantial section of the roof panels....before the entire structure collapses diagonally from upstage right to downstage left....also sending the PA arrays crashing towards the crowd. These things are rated to sustain high winds, but at the end of the day they are temporary structures. On many of these stages these wind panels can be dropped in relatively quickly if it is known that high winds are in the area....but a sudden downburst doesn't really give you any lead time. Terrible terrible tragedy. after looking at a still photograph looks more like what I thought was a solid side panel was more of a mesh/scrim material, should have allowed wind to pass through...still tremendous pressure on the roof panels. Curious to hear if this was steel and aluminum structure or mostly aluminum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 I'm surprised there is not more talk on the forum about this. I didn't look at radar last night but it looked like a gust front moved out ahead of the thunderstorm. The governor says this was a fluke and no one could have predicted this. I disagree. In a strong thunderstorm it is very possible to have 60-70mph winds. I do not know what direction the stage openings was but it is pretty easy to guess the winds had a westerly component so more precaution should have been taken to move people out east of the staging as the stom approached. I guess they just didn't think the gust front would move in as quick as it did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoMo Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 I'm surprised there is not more talk on the forum about this. I didn't look at radar last night but it looked like a gust front moved out ahead of the thunderstorm. The governor says this was a fluke and no one could have predicted this. I disagree. In a strong thunderstorm it is very possible to have 60-70mph winds. I do not know what direction the stage openings was but it is pretty easy to guess the winds had a westerly component so more precaution should have been taken to move people out east of the staging as the stom approached. I guess they just didn't think the gust front would move in as quick as it did. Or see post 2 http://www.americanwx.com/bb/index.php/topic/23105-august-12-severe-weather/page__st__160 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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