May 7th, 2009
The builder of the Dallas Cowboys‘ training facility – which collapsed on Saturday and left several people seriously injured — also constructed three other buildings that crumpled in severe weather over the past seven years, Sports Illustrated reports. Heavy winds destroyed the tent-like facility, leaving 12 people injured, including 33-year-old scouting assistant Rich Behm, whose spine was severed in the accident. Special teams coach Joe DeCamillis had surgery to repair vertebrae in his neck, and assistant athletic trainer Greg Gaither suffered a broken leg but was released Wednesday from Baylor University Medical Center The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into the incident. Other similar facilities manufactured by Allentown, Pa.-based Summit Structures LLC or its related company, Cover-All Building Systems, were warehouse-type buildings in Philadelphia and upstate New York and an indoor arena for horse competition in Oregon, according to SI.com. They fell in conditions that included heavy snow, according to records and interviews.
TAGS: collapse, Dallas Cowboys, training facility
November 10th, 2008

Family members continue search for survivors in Haiti. Days after a deadly school collapse in Haiti, the search for survivors continues. Family members of the students and teachers believed to be still under rubble brought shovels and hammers to the site Sunday to dig through the ruin, reports CNN. However, because of safety concerns surrounding the possibility of falling concrete, police had to intervene and keep them away. The school, College La Promesse Evangelique in Petionville, collapsed Friday morning during a school celebration reportedly killing at least 84 people and injuring 150. When the school collapsed, students (from 10 to 20 years old) were either playing outside or inside the building. It isn’t known exactly how many people remain trapped in the debris. At the time the three-story building collapsed, there were 700 people on school grounds, according to a Haitian official. However, a United Nations spokesman believes there were only 250 people inside the school when it collapsed, which would drop the number of people missing. Rescue workers were able to pull out several children alive from the wreckage on Saturday but also found the bodies of 20 students and their teachers. No one has been found alive since then. Some are still keeping hope alive, though. “Throughout history, there’re been people found … 48, 72 hours later – still alive, in good shape,” Michael Istvan, from the U.S. Agency for International Development (a group who is in Haiti helping with rescue efforts) told CNN. As worried parents, holding pictures of their children watched anxiously, rescue crews (from the U.S. and France) continue their effort, sending down cameras into the rubble to look for signs of life and using cranes to lift concrete. Haitian authorities questioned the school’s owner, Fortin Augustin, Sunday, according to Haiti’s Civil Protection Bureau. Augustin has not been charged with a crime. Haiti’s president, Rene Preval, called the building’s structure “really weak” and ordered that construction guidelines be reviewed.
Strong earthquake hits China. A powerful earthquake hit northwest China Monday, reports The Associated Press. The 6.5-magnitude quake hit a remote area in the nation’s Qinghai province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was 35 miles east of the Da Qaidam district, and tremors from the quake were felt in Golmud (100 miles from the quake’s epicenter), which has a population of 270,000, is the second largest city in the province. A local official said authorities sent 180 people to investigate damage from the quake, but there have been no deaths yet reported. The western part of the nation is no stranger to earthquakes; just in May, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit the region (the Sichuan province), killing 70,000 people and displacing 5 million.
TAGS: China, collapse, earthquake, haiti, school
September 8th, 2008
Rapper will likely need kidney transplant after health scare

Rapper MC Breed is recovering after he’d been placed on life support due to kidney failure this past weekend. The performer, who did jail time this year for failing to pay child support, reportedly collapsed while playing basketball in Atlanta. Breed was said to have been close to death and is still relying on just 30 percent usage of his kidneys. The rapper’s handlers are reportedly organizing efforts to support a benefit and possible transplant operation. He’s expected to remain in the hospital for a week or longer, while under observation.
TAGS: atl, atlanta, breed, collapse, kidney, mc, transplant
July 30th, 2008
Two people die and ten others are injured in a shopping mall mishap

There was a deafening noise. And then the two four-story shopping plaza under construction in Jabi, Utako district of Abuja, was mere rubble, reports AllAfrica.com. By last night, two persons had been confirmed dead, but eye witnesses said more people might have died in the rubble. Ten others were injured and taken to the hospital, while at least 50 people remained trapped under buildings in the popular Nigerian shopping district. Sources said last night that the figure of those trapped could be higher as rescue workers battled into the night to save lives. Among those trapped were workers, including the site engineer, working in the building when it caved in. Rescuers dug a tunnel to get to the trapped people, but they were being hampered by the absence of sniffer dogs and the large army of sympathizers as the place was not cordoned off.
TAGS: 50, building, collapse, Nigria, trapped