Jump to content

Apartment collapse in Iowa, 5 people unaccounted for but they want to demolish


Pancho

Recommended Posts

This one leaves me with so me questions. But first and foremost, why, exactly, can they not look for survivors or the deceased? It's not like this situation is super unique. I mean... How do they rescue people in densely populated areas after an earthquake? Bombings? Fuck, landslides?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't worked in apartment construction or renovation for a while now, but I can tell you right now there is going to be a massive problem of building collapses in this country.  All of the older buildings, pre 2000s didn't have open concepts, and what wound up happening is that every money manager pushed for older style apartments to be renovated to meet this conceptual standard and maximize market value accordingly.  The problem is, they all pushed for it to be done on the cheap, non engineered, non permitted, etc.  It doesn't take much of load bearing walls being compromised for you to have a big problem, worse, it might not be immediately noticeable, and the problem can seemingly sit dormant for years; but it's not dormant, its a time bomb.  

I'm not saying that is what has happened here, but this is a big problem.  

 

And I suppose its ok to blame Ken Paxton.  

Edited by BamaATL
  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Haha 5
  • Rage+1 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, BigHorn'13 said:

why, exactly, can they not look for survivors or the deceased?

 

Because it's too expensive for a small town to do a rubble recovery.  You want them to carefully pick apart that big pile and then demolish the building after they find all the bodies?  Why not just demolish now and then as you're cleaning the pile just deal with the bodies as you find them?  That's their logic I'm guessing.  

 

 

  • Fuck You 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, PRONG HORN said:

 

Because it's too expensive for a small town to do a rubble recovery.  You want them to carefully pick apart that big pile and then demolish the building after they find all the bodies?  Why not just demolish now and then as you're cleaning the pile just deal with the bodies as you find them?  That's their logic I'm guessing.  

 

 

If they knew the unaccounted for are dead then I could understand that perspective, but based on the tweets above and various other reports, there may be survivors. Also, I'm sure there's some non profit/ fed org out there that could help. 

Just seems like there's something else to this that's not being reported. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, PRONG HORN said:

 

Because it's too expensive for a small town to do a rubble recovery.  You want them to carefully pick apart that big pile and then demolish the building after they find all the bodies?  Why not just demolish now and then as you're cleaning the pile just deal with the bodies as you find them?  That's their logic I'm guessing.  

 

 

Davenport is the largest of the Quad Cities and the anchor of a 380k metro area, plus John Deere is HQed there so you would think heavy equipment wouldn’t be a problem to find.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, BamaATL said:

I haven't worked in apartment construction or renovation for a while now, but I can tell you right now there is going to be a massive problem of building collapses in this country.  All of the older buildings, pre 2000s didn't have open concepts, and what wound up happening is that every money manager pushed for older style apartments to be renovated to meet this conceptual standard and maximize market value accordingly.  The problem is, they all pushed for it to be done on the cheap, non engineered, non permitted, etc.  It doesn't take much of load bearing walls being compromised for you to have a big problem, worse, it might not be immediately noticeable, and the problem can seemingly sit dormant for years; but it's not dormant, its a time bomb.  

I'm not saying that is what has happened here, but this is a big problem.  

 

And I suppose its ok to blame Ken Paxton.  

The Miami-area collapse from a couple years has scared me from older mid-high rises. I definitely wouldn't want to be in a building that by all appearances is run on a low budget. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

The Miami-area collapse from a couple years has scared me from older mid-high rises. I definitely wouldn't want to be in a building that by all appearances is run on a low budget. 

That was interesting for another reason, it was financed by cocaine laundering in the 80s, which in turn lead to shoddy work because the point wasn't to build the best condo building in the world, but rather to laundry money.  There is a lot of that in south Florida, a lot.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Doesn’t the state or feds come in and investigate the scene before it’s demo’d ?

yea that is weird to me, how can the mayor just say fuck it and tear it down without the state coming in and investigating?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What has been conveniently neglected from mention is that fire crews along with a team of trauma surgeons worked for five hours in the collapse zone to perform a field amputation and save a woman's life. All the while searches were continued throughout the structure until it was deemed that the building was actively and continuously shifting. A consensus of multiple structural engineers has agreed that any debris removal is almost guaranteed to bring the rest of the building down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:

What has been conveniently neglected from mention is that fire crews along with a team of trauma surgeons worked for five hours in the collapse zone to perform a field amputation and save a woman's life. All the while searches were continued throughout the structure until it was deemed that the building was actively and continuously shifting. A consensus of multiple structural engineers has agreed that any debris removal is almost guaranteed to bring the rest of the building down.

Does that mean they should have knocked it down before the unconscious lady woke up?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, BigHorn'13 said:

If they knew the unaccounted for are dead then I could understand that perspective, but based on the tweets above and various other reports, there may be survivors. Also, I'm sure there's some non profit/ fed org out there that could help. 

Just seems like there's something else to this that's not being reported. 

I feel like the missing part is the building was already slated for demo and there were people illegally in it when it collapsed.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

I’’m coming in late on this, but if the mayor of the city, who owns the apartment building, wants it demolished before search and rescue efforts are completed, that’s a little troublesome.

It's good to know where Adler ended up.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...