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CNN Live Saturday
Roof Collapses at a Maryland Toys 'R' Us Store
Aired February 22, 2003 - 18:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In suburban Washington today, a trip to the Toys "R" Us, the toy store, turned into a fright of a lifetime. It happened in Lanham, Maryland, a northeast of Washington, D.C. The roof of a big Toys "R" Us store collapsed under the weight of rain falling on unmelted snow.
CNN's Kathleen Koch is outside the story waiting for the all clear.
Kathleen what is the latest going on there at the scene?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol Lin, they just concluded a press conference and what they're telling us right now is that they're focusing in on a 20-by- 40 foot section of this Toys "R" Us store, where workers are very painstakingly taking out debris by hand, loading it into buckets and it is being carried out of the store now.
What they think is that there is still a chance that someone may be trapped beneath. There were search dogs, K-9 teams, that went in earlier this morning and did get one hit. That was early in the afternoon actually.
And they said that indicated that perhaps someone might be buried beneath. Since then rescue workers have gone back to that same location, that is that 20-by-40 foot area, and they're still searching it.
Now, cameras were allowed in about an hour ago. So we got a first-hand look at what is left inside. And it is just hard to believe that this was ever a store, at all. Through the walls outside are standing, the inside looks like it was struck by a wrecking ball.
Now this happened around 11:30 this morning. And we were able to speak with one person who was inside the store at the time. He was making a purchase. He was at the front register when the roof came in without warning. And then, he went back inside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard a lot of screaming immediately after. I mean, mostly people just in shock, you know, crying apparently. And once we got to the front of the store, once everything had stopped collapsing, we tried to go back in. We walked through a flooded part of the store and tried to scream for any survivors. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: The store manager says one stroke of luck that they had today was that the fact that it was raining very heavily this morning and so there were very few people in the store. Only about 25 people all total, that's including the 10 workers in the store, the 10 employees. Now, the 10 employees were able to escape safely, three of them had some minor injuries, two customers who were in the store were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
But at this point, the search goes on. They are, again, focusing in on this one area, Carol, where they think there is some indication that someone might be trapped. But right now, all that we can do is wait and hope.
Back to you.
LIN: Let's hope nobody is under there. Let's hope they find nothing. But in the meantime, Kathleen, anybody answer any questions about the structural soundness of this building? I mean, it is incredible that this even happened.
KOCH: Well, Carol, it is incredible but we have been getting these reports throughout the day of stores around this area, you know, we had more than two feet of snow in some areas of Washington, D.C., as of the end of the day on Monday. And that is more than many of these roofs were designed for. You add on top of that some -- perhaps roughly two inches of rain that we've heard that we may have had today. And that doubles the weight of the snow.
So, it was interesting though, this one gentleman, who we had that little interview with earlier, he said as he was coming out store workers said they couldn't understand why the roof collapsed, because they said -- and we don't have any proof of this -- but they said the roof had been clear of snow earlier in the week. So, still quite a puzzle as to why it came down.
LIN: OK. Thank you very much. Kathleen Koch, watching events out there, perhaps it is still not over, perhaps at least one person still trapped inside. We'll find out tonight. Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 22, 2003 - 18:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In suburban Washington today, a trip to the Toys "R" Us, the toy store, turned into a fright of a lifetime. It happened in Lanham, Maryland, a northeast of Washington, D.C. The roof of a big Toys "R" Us store collapsed under the weight of rain falling on unmelted snow.
CNN's Kathleen Koch is outside the story waiting for the all clear.
Kathleen what is the latest going on there at the scene?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol Lin, they just concluded a press conference and what they're telling us right now is that they're focusing in on a 20-by- 40 foot section of this Toys "R" Us store, where workers are very painstakingly taking out debris by hand, loading it into buckets and it is being carried out of the store now.
What they think is that there is still a chance that someone may be trapped beneath. There were search dogs, K-9 teams, that went in earlier this morning and did get one hit. That was early in the afternoon actually.
And they said that indicated that perhaps someone might be buried beneath. Since then rescue workers have gone back to that same location, that is that 20-by-40 foot area, and they're still searching it.
Now, cameras were allowed in about an hour ago. So we got a first-hand look at what is left inside. And it is just hard to believe that this was ever a store, at all. Through the walls outside are standing, the inside looks like it was struck by a wrecking ball.
Now this happened around 11:30 this morning. And we were able to speak with one person who was inside the store at the time. He was making a purchase. He was at the front register when the roof came in without warning. And then, he went back inside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard a lot of screaming immediately after. I mean, mostly people just in shock, you know, crying apparently. And once we got to the front of the store, once everything had stopped collapsing, we tried to go back in. We walked through a flooded part of the store and tried to scream for any survivors. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: The store manager says one stroke of luck that they had today was that the fact that it was raining very heavily this morning and so there were very few people in the store. Only about 25 people all total, that's including the 10 workers in the store, the 10 employees. Now, the 10 employees were able to escape safely, three of them had some minor injuries, two customers who were in the store were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
But at this point, the search goes on. They are, again, focusing in on this one area, Carol, where they think there is some indication that someone might be trapped. But right now, all that we can do is wait and hope.
Back to you.
LIN: Let's hope nobody is under there. Let's hope they find nothing. But in the meantime, Kathleen, anybody answer any questions about the structural soundness of this building? I mean, it is incredible that this even happened.
KOCH: Well, Carol, it is incredible but we have been getting these reports throughout the day of stores around this area, you know, we had more than two feet of snow in some areas of Washington, D.C., as of the end of the day on Monday. And that is more than many of these roofs were designed for. You add on top of that some -- perhaps roughly two inches of rain that we've heard that we may have had today. And that doubles the weight of the snow.
So, it was interesting though, this one gentleman, who we had that little interview with earlier, he said as he was coming out store workers said they couldn't understand why the roof collapsed, because they said -- and we don't have any proof of this -- but they said the roof had been clear of snow earlier in the week. So, still quite a puzzle as to why it came down.
LIN: OK. Thank you very much. Kathleen Koch, watching events out there, perhaps it is still not over, perhaps at least one person still trapped inside. We'll find out tonight. Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
