Employees of an Amazon warehouse that collapsed in a tornado were evacuated to a 'toilet' instead of a shelter
On December 10, 2021, a tornado in the Midwest-South region of the United States destroyed an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, killing
OSHA probes Amazon warehouse where workers died with no tornado shelter | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/12/osha-investigates-amazon-after-6-die-in-warehouse-struck-by-tornado/
Amazon workers told to shelter in bathroom during tornado: 911 call
https://nypost.com/2021/12/16/amazon-workers-told-to-shelter-in-bathroom-during-tornado-911-call/
In the accident that killed six Amazon warehouse employees due to the tornado that occurred on December 10, it was prohibited to bring mobile phones into the warehouse, and employees could not obtain weather information on their terminals. It has been pointed out that it was placed.
It was discovered that bringing in mobile phones was prohibited in the Amazon warehouse that collapsed in the tornado and caused death --GIGAZINE
In the area of Edwardsville, Illinois, a tornado warning was issued at 20:06 and 16 minutes local time on the 10th, and a tornado struck the Amazon warehouse at about 27 minutes, about 20 minutes after the first warning, meteorological authorities said. Has announced. Amazon has a 'warehouse administrators were instructed to look for shelter in the second tornado warning at the same time as the employee' to the CNBC news media says , but some of the employees we take refuge in the toilet The call log of the emergency call number (911) revealed that he was instructed to do so.
A woman, believed to be an Amazon warehouse employee, reportedly reported to the Edwardsville police after 20:00 on the same day. 'When I and two female Amazon warehouse delivery drivers arrived at the warehouse, I was instructed to go straight to the toilet,' a female whistleblower, who was dismissed by Edwardsville police, said in a call. .. After telling the operator that the three had evacuated to the women's toilet in the south of the building and that many employees were evacuated to the men's toilet in another place and the central part of the facility. 'I don't know who is where, even though a lot of people are underlaying debris and screaming a lot of people. I'm very scared. Please help me.'
One of the two women who evacuated to the bathroom with the female whistleblower did not respond to the call, and when asked if CPR was possible, the whistleblower said, 'I don't feel the pulse ... I can't help anymore.' I answered. 'The warehouse walls are made of 11-inch thick concrete and are about 40 feet high,' Edwardsville Fire Department chief James Whiteford told the media. It must have taken a lot of weight, 'he said, saying that the employees under the debris were in extremely dangerous condition.
It has also been pointed out that there may have been a problem with the durability of the Amazon warehouse. According to overseas media Ars Technica, the Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville was built by the 'tilt-up method ', which was created by laying down a reinforced concrete board at the site and then raising it vertically to make it a wall. While the construction cost of this method is low, it is said to be dangerous because the heavy wall becomes unstable if the roof is lost due to the structure in which the wall is supported by the roof. In fact, when Edwardsville's Amazon warehouse was hit by a tornado on December 10, a strong wind of 150 mph (about 240 km / h) tore the roof of the building, resulting in 1.1 million square feet (about 10 hectares). The southern half of the building collapsed. It is reported that the women's toilet where the women mentioned above evacuated was also in the south of the facility.
by Drone Base / REUTERS
'The tilt-up method was not developed to withstand a tornado,' Grace Yang, a professor of structural engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, told the media.
Also, according to Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois, there are many buildings in the Midwestern United States that have a basement that doubles as a tornado shelter, but Edwardsville has a lot of floods, so there was no underground shelter in the warehouse in question. .. In facilities that do not have a reinforced safety room or underground shelter, evacuation to the toilet is the first option when a tornado warning is issued.
The US Occupational Safety and Health Agency announced on December 14 that it will launch an investigation into the accident.
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