During many summers, people attending outdoor events needlessly die when tents and stages collapse in high winds. These disasters are almost without exception preventable, and reducing their likelihood simply involves some modest costs and a little advanced planning.
Ignoring the potential for extreme weather may not only lead to terrible outcomes but also very costly litigation.
In the past two days alone, three people have died in two tragic incidents at outdoor events. On Sunday in Chicago, a man was killed and several others injured when a tent collapsed at a suburban festival known as Prairie Fest. On Monday, two people were killed in New Hampshire when 60 mph winds caused a circus tent to collapse.
The events are still raw, and presumably courts will determine whether the event organizers were at fault. But in both the Chicago and New Hampshire cases, it is known that severe thunderstorm warnings were issued at least 15 minutes before disaster struck.
It is rare these days not to have advance warning for a severe thunderstorm, so event organizers will be challenged to rely on a defense that a “storm struck without warning” if they are sued.
A lawsuit representing the victims of the devastating stage collapse of July 2011 at the Indiana State Fair — which killed seven and injured 58 — settled in 2014 for about $50 million.
Rob Dale, an emergency manager and meteorologist based in Lansing, Mich., penned a must-read commentary for any outdoor planner, emphasizing the importance of establishing a safety plan and hiring a meteorologist:
[I]f you are hosting an outdoor event that is going to bring in the public, ESPECIALLY if you charge them money, you MUST have a safety plan in place that puts a high priority on inclement weather actions. You need to identify shelter areas, evacuation routes, notification methods, and monitoring (i.e. who is going to watch for storms, are they trained, and how will they get the word out.) Connect with your local emergency managers to have them look at your plan. Talk to a local meteorologist to review your monitoring. If you have a large group coming, you can probably afford to hire someone to help you in that aspect. Trust me – the cost of that is going to be MUCH lower than the cost of a lawsuit afterwards.
Even if you are planning a smaller outdoor event, say a wedding or barbecue that involves a tent, it is worthwhile to find a weather-savvy friend or relative to monitor radar and warnings from the National Weather Service and then have a plan of action to move people inside.
Following horrible events in which there are human casualties, questions always arise about the structural integrity of the tents and stages that collapse and whether there should be codes and regulations governing their use.
While event planners should always provide the best possible shelter, at some point sturdier structures become impractical and/or cost prohibitive. Not to mention, many permanent structures cannot withstand the force of a particularly violent thunderstorm or tornado, much less a temporary one.
When severe weather threatens, a tent is not an adequate point of shelter. Any evacuation plan should aim to allow enough time for event attendees to either walk or drive to a permanent indoor shelter.
Finally, people attending outdoor events also bear some responsibility. They should monitor forecasts and then make a wise decision about whether to attend and, if attending, have an exit strategy if severe weather becomes imminent. As Dale puts it: “If the forecast looks ominous – don’t go! I know it’s hard to stay home when you bought the tickets – but here’s a secret that shouldn’t be a secret… If you are at an event with 100,000 people, and a tornado drops out of the sky 10 miles to your west, all 100,000 will not be safely evacuated and into shelter even if the facility has done extensive planning. The numbers just don’t add up…”