A lot of questions have come up in the wake of this what some are calling a"freak" accident. A story in Tuesday's Indianapolis Star reveals that no permitting and inspection process is required for temporary stage structures in Indiana. The focus right now is on the structure of the rigging, which was possibly suspect.
I have no knowledge of architecture and engineering, but I am a weather spotter. I had been out shopping Saturday afternoon. The forecast was for storms in the late afternoon or evening, so upon my return home around 5:30 p.m., I checked the weather radar. A squall line was clearly visible in eastern Illinois. I figured on checking the radar throughout the evening, and then turning on Dayton TV later that evening as the storms approached. My part of Indiana is not covered by the Indianapolis National Weather Service (NWS) office. Furthermore, Indianapolis television stations drop coverage of severe weather as soon as it exits the county directly to my west.
The Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma issued Severe Thunderstorm Watch 777 at 6:00 p.m. EDT. This watch did not include my county, but it did include the Indianapolis metropolitan area and much of central Indiana. The squall line was already moving into northwestern Indiana. The NWS defines a severe thunderstorm as being capable of producing hail of 3/4" diameter and/or winds of 58 mph or above. Lightning is not included in the definition, but is often referred to in the severe thunderstorm watches that the SPC issues.
The Indianapolis Star ran another story on Wednesday that pretty much says or implies much of what I was going to write here. This storm and the accompanying gust front (outflow boundary) was no fluke. Furthermore, Indiana State Fair officials had plenty enough information to either cancel the concert or evacuate the area long before the gust front toppled the rigging, killing five people.
A couple of things in the story are very troubling. The Star reports that the state fair has a one-page severe weather plan. One page? Unless that page says "Cancel all outdoor events on the fairgrounds when a squall line is headed toward the Indianapolis metropolitan area" that one page sounds woefully inadequate. Even more troubling was this from the story:
Fair officials had no reason to think the storm would cause the extent of damage that it did, Klotz said. Just a week earlier, the fairgrounds had three thunderstorms that he called "very similar," without the same punishing results.
When asked why fair officials didn't prepare an evacuation plan hours earlier, when the National Weather Service issued a watch, Klotz said: "I was not aware of other security and emergency personnel, what they know about that in relation to earlier National Weather Service warnings."
Basically, the state fair took a gamble on three previous occasions and no one was harmed. Therefore, it was okay to gamble with people's lives again. Klotz then goes on to say he was unaware of what safety personnel were supposed to do in light of NWS warnings. Is this an admission that he does not know what the severe weather plan (such as it may be) is? Are people not trained? Why is Klotz a spokesman for the fair if he is unable to tell reporters four days after the event what safety measures are in place for dealing with severe weather?
