Posted on 01/29/2006 3:15:46 PM PST by lizol
Relatives wait for news of loved ones Reuters
Chorzow: Distraught relatives gathered in sub-zero temperatures yesterday at the site of a collapsed exhibition hall in Poland to discover whether their loved ones were among the dead pulled from the rubble.
Hopes were fading that any more survivors would be found in the wreckage of the hall, which had been staging an event for international pigeon enthusiasts when the snow-laden roof collapsed on Saturday.
After a night in which temperatures plunged to 15 Celsius emergency services said they were shifting their focus from rescue efforts to clearing the rubble.
"I was [at the show] with my daughter and sons-in-law. I managed to get out and the rescuers pulled my daughter out.
"She's fine, she's at home, but I still don't know what happened to my sons-in-law.
"I'm waiting for any kind of word," said a tearful Jozef Watroba, the owner of a pigeon-keeping supplies shop in the southern industrial city of Chorzow where the tragedy occurred.
Emergency workers at the scene referred relatives to a nearby coordination centre for information.
At the centre, some 30 pigeon breeders were gathering buckets of bird seed after receiving permission to approach the rubble in an attempt to keep alive some of the pigeons.
Pigeon care
Some birds were brought out of the rubble in cages, others fluttered aimlessly above the wreckage.
Passers-by laid flowers and lit candles at the perimeter of the cordoned-off site.
Residents of a neighbouring hotel, many of whom were attending the pigeon show, visited its 11th-storey terrace to stare out at the snow-covered crater where the roof caved in.
Most of us don't need to know, but are we talking 100? 1000? 10,000?
67 found dead (including 2 kids), and more than 140 injured.
Thank you. Sad, but great post.
It is a nameless tragedy. I will pray for those who had to mourn for their loved ones.
P.S. It would be nice if you could give us further information about the reason why the roof collapsed, if you will find a suitable article in the Polish press. I know that this will take some time, but it is going to be interesting. Since I am a architect and civil engineer that constructed for a long time exactly such buildings, I have some professional interest into this cause. Since the height of the snow wasn't that impressive (they said about 50 cm) there must be another reason for the desaster. In Germany and France we usually have to add 75 kg of snow per squaremeter into the load that the roof could take. This value has to be heightened if the building stands in higher altitude or in regions with extended rainfall. If the constructing engineer would have considered this into his calculation, nothing would have happened. Since I am sure that my Polish colleagues use simular static procedures there must be somebody who made a massive fault.
Public prosecutor claims that on the collapsed roof of hall in Katowice there could be even 2,5 thousand tons of snow and ice. It means the load of about 108 kg per square meter on the whole roof. As the owner of the company that designed the building stated load allowed for that building was between 70-80 kg per square meter.
Do you know the height above sea level of Katowice? The numbers between 108 - 75 kilogrammes are simular to comparable areas in Germany. If the roof was planned with such a load there must be a severe fault in the construction. The failure of halls is happening from time to time during the winter period (not only in Poland - the physics are everywhere the same). Usually only old buildings with wooden or concrete (with rusted steel reinforcement) load carrying systems are affected (like the recently collapsed ice hall in Bad Reichenhall/Germany). This is what makes this case that arcane. It was a new building with a steel construction. I am quite sure that somebody is sweating in panic now.
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