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Stuart G

(38,445 posts)
Sun Oct 21, 2018, 01:08 PM Oct 2018

They Danced and Jumped for Homecoming Weekend, Then the Floor Gave Way

Source: CNN:

As crowded group of Clemson University students and local residents danced and jumped around at an apartment clubhouse late Saturday night, Jeremy Tester felt something strange beneath his feet.

"You could hear the floor about to go through, kind of," he said, "but nobody thought it was going to happen. They just kept going."

But suddenly the floor gave way. Dozens of partiers dropped into free fall and landed in a mass of sprawling bodies in the basement.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

This happened yesterday evening..fortunately no deaths reported as of today..Many injuries.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/21/us/clemson-floor-collapse/index.html

10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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They Danced and Jumped for Homecoming Weekend, Then the Floor Gave Way (Original Post) Stuart G Oct 2018 OP
Think they exceeded maximum occupancy rating? marble falls Oct 2018 #1
Yes. Definitely. NurseJackie Oct 2018 #9
It looks like a social room in an apartment complex, the tenants who hosted this ... marble falls Oct 2018 #10
First, was there a posted occupancy limit? lapfog_1 Oct 2018 #2
I looked it up, Hyatt disaster killed 114, injured 216- July 17, 1981 Stuart G Oct 2018 #3
Yes, I knew one of the injured. lapfog_1 Oct 2018 #4
I remember that so well. leftyladyfrommo Oct 2018 #7
Eerily reminiscent of the floor collapse at a wedding in Israel in 2001. forgotmylogin Oct 2018 #5
Resonance Cryptoad Oct 2018 #6
one of my favorite videos lapfog_1 Oct 2018 #8

NurseJackie

(42,862 posts)
9. Yes. Definitely.
Mon Oct 22, 2018, 12:13 PM
Oct 2018

I'm not blaming the victims, but I think that "somebody" was negligent and irresponsible (and I'm not referring to the builder.)

marble falls

(57,204 posts)
10. It looks like a social room in an apartment complex, the tenants who hosted this ...
Mon Oct 22, 2018, 11:41 PM
Oct 2018

bear some responsibility. No doubt lawyers will contend its the complex's responsibility to monitor the size of the crowds and to protect young educated adults from their juvenile impulses.

lapfog_1

(29,223 posts)
2. First, was there a posted occupancy limit?
Sun Oct 21, 2018, 01:18 PM
Oct 2018

and did they exceed that limit?

Jumping up and down in unison ( no indication that there was this exact activity ) can place huge harmonic loads on the support beams, far in excess of what they are intended to support.

I was part of the team that ran the post analysis on the KC Hyatt disaster (Tea Dance) in 1981. Not only that but I used to go to those dances at the Hyatt and wasn't at that one because my family went on vacation to Colorado in that exact week. The sky bridges were originally designed to support the weight and harmonic vibrations... but the contractor changed the method of hanging the bridges in the atrium ballroom area.

Stuart G

(38,445 posts)
3. I looked it up, Hyatt disaster killed 114, injured 216- July 17, 1981
Sun Oct 21, 2018, 01:25 PM
Oct 2018

Here is a link to some stories about this.

.https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=hts&oq=&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGNI_enUS494US495&q=KC+Hyatt+disaster


Fortunately no one was killed in yesterdays floor collapse

lapfog_1

(29,223 posts)
4. Yes, I knew one of the injured.
Sun Oct 21, 2018, 01:39 PM
Oct 2018

a co-worker. We all worked about 3 blocks from the Hyatt and a lot of us went there for a "special lunch" or to attend the Tea Dances.

My firm was engaged to run the simulations of the Sky Bridges as built, not as designed... and found that most NASTRAN simulations showed that the bridges were LUCKY to even support their own weight, much less the weight of dozens to hundreds of people on them.

This was the early years of computer simulation of such engineering.

leftyladyfrommo

(18,870 posts)
7. I remember that so well.
Sun Oct 21, 2018, 03:24 PM
Oct 2018

I didn't have a TV so I didn't hear about it until I got on the bus the next day.

That shook KC to the core.

forgotmylogin

(7,530 posts)
5. Eerily reminiscent of the floor collapse at a wedding in Israel in 2001.
Sun Oct 21, 2018, 02:27 PM
Oct 2018

In that case, there was also a terrifying video - they fell down three floors and there were 23 deaths and 380 injuries, including the bride who suffered a broken pelvis. It happened due to the building owners expanding a new room onto a roof that wasn't originally designed to support the additional weight of hundreds of people as a floor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versailles_wedding_hall_disaster

(The video is not in the linked Wikipedia article, but is on YouTube - you won't see the video unless you choose to.)





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