Do they read their own stories…?

Here’s a quote from the LA Times regarding the Indiana stage collapse tragedy:

The National Weather Service in Indianapolis had been tracking the storm for hours and was in close contact with fair officials. The agency issued a severe thunderstorm warning — with winds whipping at 77 mph — at 8:39 p.m., shortly before the collapse.

Daniels said it did not appear that anyone could have predicted such a tragedy. “I’m not clear how anyone could have foreseen a sudden, highly localized blast of wind,” he said.

Uh, paragraph 1 would seem to negate paragraph 2.

In any case, while 70+ mph winds are pretty significant, they don’t seem that implausible in the random scheme of things. I’m having a hard time believing that these venues shouldn’t be designed for just such “gusts”.

Anyway, the important and unfortunate thing is people died and were injured because of this. My thoughts go out to them and their families.