4 dead after Indiana State Fair stage collapses

What a tragedy....

4 dead after Indiana State Fair stage collapses
20 minutes ago


INDIANAPOLIS — Four people were killed and a dozen injured after a stage collapsed during a storm Saturday night at the Indiana State Fair, where the country group Sugarland was set to perform, the Indianapolis Star and WTHR reported.

Strong winds caused the stage rigging for the outdoor concert to collapse at the fairgrounds in Indianapolis. Fans were trapped and injured in the incident shortly before 9 p.m. It happened before the band had taken the stage.

Details on the conditions of those injured were not immediately known. Indiana State Police told The Associated Press they were still working to gather information and did not have anything to release yet.

Emergency crews were called to the scene. Workers were setting up a command center to tend to those who were injured.

Thousands of concert-goers were being evacuated to a nearby building because of high winds when the rigging for the stage fell onto the track where some were seated.

"It was like it was in slow motion," concert-goer Amy Weathers told the Indianapolis Star. "You couldn't believe it was actually happening."

Those who were injured were being moved to a tunnel below the stage, the Star reported. A hole was being dug to try to reach those trapped beneath the rigging.

Associated Press photographer Darron Cummings was in the audience attending the concert as a fan shortly before the collapse. He said an announcer gave the crowd instructions on how to evacuate if the weather worsened, but said they hoped to get Sugarland on stage soon.

Cummings said he and his friends went ahead and sought shelter in a nearby barn after seeing the weather radar.

"Then we heard screams. We heard people just come running," Cummings told the AP.

Witnesses told WTHR that some of the injured were in a VIP section in front of the stage known as the "Sugar Pit." The witnesses said a wall of dirt, dust, rain and wind came up the main thoroughfare of the fairgrounds just before the collapse.

"Panic kicked in when they seen the dust bowl coming in from the Midway," concert-goer Darryl Cox told WTHR.

Another person at the concert, Emily Davis, told WTHR that there was lightning and the sky had gotten dark but it wasn't raining when the wind suddenly toppled the rigging.

"It was horrible, people were running and going crazy," she said.

I think this story has been updated to only 3 dead now. The weather system that moved through our state was very bad tonight indeed. I was at a local street fair playing my street organ and the sky just went black in a matter of about 10 minutes. I was lucky to be parked only a block away and made a mad dash. The wind was incredible. We had pea size hail here but some areas were reporting softball size. I live about an hour north of Indy and we have lots of damage here as well. The video from the state fair is really scary.

Tom, I am another hour and a half North of you, we also had some hail and terrible wind. I hired a friend to finish the leanto corners on my barn, when going in after feeding calves I heard metal crashing and realized the pile of scrap I forgot to throw a couple of tires on top of. So wonder how far it went, will look tomorrow in daylight. My parents another 18 miles North and East of me had golf ball hail and it covered the ground. Came in quick, like a hurricane had an eye in the storm where it got bright for about 10-15 minutes then dark and terrible wind and rain again.

Number is back to 4 now and expected to rise, according to the news. No bad stuff down here. Had a little shower last night.

They have now updated the number to 5 with over 40 injured. This is really sad. My brother told me today that he had been offered VIP tickets for this concert but they had seen the band "Sugarland" before so decided not to go. He said the seats would have been somewhere in the front 10 rows. He is now waiting to hear from the people who used the tickets.
This is all very sad.