Anyone hear about this? I live down the road from valley ranch and it's crazy, the rookies got trapped under the practice bubble and the whole thing collapsed. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h33PBb6ZTeDU4DawZhEWsaUmgcxAD97UB1AG0
They had some video on FOX 4 in Dallas. Crazy stuff. The walls start rippling in the wind, the lights go out and then, suddenly, the outer shell is in shreds. The FOX 4 weather guy says they have no tornado confirmation, though.
Here's video of the collapse: <script src="http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/js/2.0/video/evp/module.js?loc=dom&vid=/video/us/2009/05/02/cowboys.facility.collapse.wfaa" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript>Embedded video from <a href="http://www.cnn.com/video">CNN Video</a></noscript>
Wow. A buddy of mine goes tornado hunting nearly every year. He's gone for about the past 5 years, but never really gotten anything on camera. They left yesterday morning (Friday), and were planning on making it to Indiana by last night. Today, they were going to drive down to Kansas and possibly Oklahoma. I hope they caught some of this. Before he left, he was telling me, "This is the year! This is it!" It looks promising.
North Texas storms... nuts. And the area it hit usually doesn't get the worst of the storms - that's usually the Ft. Worth, Denton and north areas.
Yeah, all I heard was something about near-tornado force winds. THat facility looked like a tent more than a rigid structure.
Apparently it was a microburst with over 70 mph winds. Here's a pic somebody took of it on this site. Check out the first pic in the sequence. Looks like an inverted tornado. Crazy! http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-253425?ref=feeds/oncnn
I heard about it earlier in the day and cracked a joke about it being the rookies breaking tackle drill to try to outrun the falling dome. I feel bad about it now that I heard that someone was paralyzed in the collapse. I don't know exactly what that particular structure is but it looks like an air supported bubble. Those are used quite a bit for athletic facilities since you can enclose a large area fairly cheaply and take them down and put them up rather quickly. I'm wondering if this accident will cause a change in the codes regulating them.
From what I heard, it was, indeed, and air supported structure. Which makes me wonder: who thought it would be a good idea to practice in what amounts to a giant tent during a massive storm? If I'm the guy in charge, seems to me as soon as the lights started shaking like that, I'm evacuating everyone to an actual building. Or at the very least getting everyone under the metal stairway, which was more structurally sound.
I've never worked professionally with an air supported bubble structure but I just took a look at one of the leading manufacturers and according to them the structures should be able to withstand 150 mph winds. [rquoter]When extreme winds are a concern, we can custom build an structure to suit your needs. ASATI air structures can withstand 150+ MPH winds! Our exclusive design allows us to manufacture superior air structures that can withstand hurricane level winds. No other company in the industry can claim that![/rquoter] from ASATI http://www.avidoutdoors.com/airsupported.html They also say the fabric has a 20 year lifespan. I am will be interested to see what comes out from the forensic report on this. I'm wondering if the structure wasn't anchored correctly.
Holy *****...i heard about this on my drive back from Austin...crazy storms...hope everyone gets better/is alright
Didn't look like it when the were building it. When it was being built, you could see a steel frame being built and the fabric siding was added as they went along. Not saying it wasn't air supported, but it sure didn't look like it to me when they were building it (but I'm easily fooled).
Cowboys scouting asst. paralyzed from waist down Just terrible. I hadn't paid a whole lot of attention to this story other than knowing it happened until now. I thought I had heard that nobody was seriously hurt, but apparently I misheard that or someone had their facts wrong.
