Evacapalooza (Chicago, Grant Park, Columbus: lawyers, home, tornadoes)

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Weird. Rain doesn't make stages collapse, and lightning is much more likely to strike a skyscraper than a park. The people are no less likely to be struck by lightning outside the fence than they are inside the fence. It's not like leaving the festival grounds puts them into a magical no-lightning zone. I guess once they're outside of the fence they're no longer the festival's responsibility, so that's why they do it. Silly, regardless.

There were severe thunderstorm warnings out for the entire metro area, 80mph winds in the western suburbs, 60mph at Midway, 50mph in Grant Park, 60mph on the north side along with lightning that averaged 10 strikes per second over the southern half of the metro area and left something like 225,000 people without power. I tried to take a cab near Wrigley Field and had to divert twice for huge trees down over Waveland and then another street just to the north.

They told the people to evacuate, with the preferred places to go being the three large underground parking garages that are set aside for this specific purpose during festivals, although many people (including my friends) wandered into the loop and found shelter inside stores. They obviously didn't want people outside.

If they'd just let 100,000 people mill around and didn't even try to get them into shelter you would have had every lawyer in the country pouring into Chicago if there were any injurises - that would have been the negligence opportunity of all time if they didn't even put their plans into action with the dire weather reports pouring in.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Evacuating was definitely the right call. The festival and the city earn kudos for effectively evacuating and readmitting several hundred thousand people out of and back into grant park without "missing a beat" . It was kind of cool watching the storm from inside Northbridge anyway

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

If they'd just let 100,000 people mill around and didn't even try to get them into shelter you would have had every lawyer in the country pouring into Chicago

Fair enough. It's probably because I come from a place with more storms and fewer lawyers that I found it odd. Still learning the local customs after several years.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by jpchi60630

after what happenned with the stage collapse in Indiana last year, nobody wants a repeat or lawsuit so they evacuated lollapalooza.

There was also a recent stage collapse in Toronto, as well as one last year in Belgium. The radar on Saturday looks just as bad, if not worse, than it did in any of the three recent collapses.

[snoylekim]

Yes ... about 70 miles long x 10 miles across, 45K Cloud Tops , 70 MPH gusts ... they made the right call ..

[sunnyandcloudydays]

The Saturday storm was intensifying as it moved East into Indiana and over lake Michigan.

The same storm system prompted a tornado warning in NE Indiana.



I was curious how many stages were at the festival, unlike Indianapolis that had one stage.

Having multiple stage platforms increases the risk of recent stage collapses.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

The Saturday storm was intensifying as it moved East into Indiana and over lake Michigan.

The same storm system prompted a tornado warning in NE Indiana.



I was curious how many stages were at the festival, unlike Indianapolis that had one stage.

Having multiple stage platforms increases the risk of recent stage collapses.

there are 8 stages.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Thank you, I knew there were several stages at the festival.

Point being when we experienced the bad weather I am sure both the city and the management and stage hand personal made this decision together.

Cant remember the name of the band that was playing in Indianapolis but they are still in court over the mishap that took place down there.

Seems from what I have read most of the concert goers took it in stride and continued on with their night of fun and partying.

The ending could have been worse.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Honestly couldn't have went much smoother

[dudenamedric]

Do they block off the park so that people just walking around downtown can't see the show?