Stage Collapse, Big Valley Jamboree, Alberta

Subject: Stage Collapse Big Valley Jamboree
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 02:59 AM

Sheeesh I feel so alone and isolated, like everyone else is asleep. Not a good feeling at the moment.

This is horrifying. Big crowd, bad storm, destruction and death and injury where all should be music and camaraderie.

At Camrose, Alberta

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090802/ap_en_mu/cn_canada_stage_collapse

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 09:53 AM

How terrifying it must have been.
Don't feel alone, Ebbie- it looks like a quiet morning here today.

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 12:01 PM

That does look bad. It would be frightening to think that a tornado is about to hit, not be able to find loved ones and then have the stage collapse.
Ebbie, I remember being all alone without my glasses in NYC the day the World Trade Center came down. It was one of the few times in my life when I felt alone and isolated.
Two strangers helped me - one a Muslim man. You're never alone, lady.

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: open mike
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 12:14 PM

i was at a concert where Garnet Rogers got a shock
(presumably from improperly grounded electric plug)
which knocked him off his feet...that was scary too.

(someone from the stage presumed the worst and called
out "does any one know CPR?" I sprinted towards the
front when i heard that but luckily it was a false
alarm...

I recommended him to get checked at a hospital..

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 12:19 PM

Yikes, Sins. That is beyond dreadful.

It seems strange to me now how alone I felt last night. Being 'alone' is not scary to me but being alone is.

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 01:31 PM

The high winds associated with summer thunderstorms in the prairies are dangerous, sometimes over 100 mph, and no associated tornado.

High winds also struck in Calgary, knocking steel plates off a building under construction, killing a child and seriously injuring another person on the street below.

It is a shame that people attending the Jamboree were killed and injured, and the program was disrupted and the atmosphere destroyed. They must pick up the pieces and press on. That event is too valuable to lose.

Alberta has much open land, agricultural, ranch or forest; these storms may destroy barns, etc., completely flatten a crop, but chances are that they hit unpopulated ground and no one hears about them.

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 02:45 PM

I lived 50 km from Camrose for five years. Often went there for this and that. In that area, storms of that nature are at the rate of about a few a month in hot weather. It is also a tornado area. It was fortunate that there were none, because some of them hitting 150,000 people who have no substantial shelter is a nightmare best left uncondisreed.

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 03:10 PM

A really awful story.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 03:44 PM

The winds also can get strong in the Alberta mountain corridors. Driving on the highway in the Bow Valley corridor, the wind became very strong so I pulled to the shoulder and stopped. A car coming the other way was floated and ended up pointing back the way it came. No clouds, bright sunshine.
The car contained some very surprised and shaken vacationers from Ontario.

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 05:08 PM

Wow.

Subject: RE: Stage Collapse, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 05:16 PM

I heard about this on the news this morning, but it's that time of year when so many of us are outside doing other stuff, not in reading the computer news.

If there's a mudelf around, please add an "e" to the word "collapse" in the title.

SRS

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 06:01 PM

Thanks, Sage. I put it in later, just before I hit Send but it didn't take. I do know how to spell it. :)

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 06:15 PM

Digression-
Ebbie, several pecularities of mudcat. The worst is not printing a submitted message. Sometimes it will take after 3-4 attempts, sometimes I have had to refresh and then re-submit.

Another other error seems to be the one that hit you- an addition or correction does not take.

Also I have had a submission cut off, the first part is printed but the last part is left out of the post. This is the worst because when I see a post is printed, I don't read all the way through, and the error is not caught.

The title was understandable, so no problem.

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: Alice
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 06:25 PM

yes, I heard the news right after it happened.

scary accident

Subject: RE: Stage Collaps, Big Valley Jamboree
From: GUEST,Pam
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 09:18 PM

Its very sad ,I lived in Calgary for about 10 years the weather can change in a instant. My daughter still lives there and one of her friends was working security, she's okay but shaken.

Subject: RE: Stage Collapse, Big Valley Jamboree, Alberta
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 02:47 PM

Truly a Hellish storm. There is video on You Tube showing the collapse and the suddenness and violence of the storm. I am convinced that the fatalities happened on the stage with the heavy framework collapsing. What is amazing is that more people were not killed.

Subject: RE: Stage Collapse, Big Valley Jamboree, Alberta
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Aug 09 - 10:28 AM

Suddenness? I can't accept that. Thunderstorms that powerful don't come out of nowhere. They form, travel across country, and are tracked by governments and media. For example, the local airport probably knew all about it.

People sponsoring festivals in areas where thunderstorms occur need to be on the alert for them and to have a plan. Certainly the show should have been stopped before the sky turned 'brown and purple and green.'

The stage framework also needs to be investigated to see if it was designed and assembled oorrectly.

Prevention! We need prevention.