Buried Truths And The Hyatt Skywalks

Author : Richard A. Serrano
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : History
ISBN : 1612497187

Get Book

Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks by Richard A. Serrano Pdf

"In 1981 the sudden collapse of two skywalks in Kansas City's Hyatt hotel killed 114 people and injured another 200. There never was a public trial, nor a full airing of everything that went wrong. Richard A. Serrano shared a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the disaster at the time; now he returns to the tragedy to learn all that went wrong, how it could have been avoided, and what lasting effects persist today-for engineering and the legal system, but most importantly those who suffered. Drawing on legal depositions, evidentiary material, and recollections from 240 survivors, first responders, and construction officials, Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks is the story of this monumental catastrophe and what it teaches us today. The Friday evening Tea Dance was all the rage that summer of 1981. Each week the lobby filled with throngs of revelers, some celebrating atop the skywalks themselves. On July 17, without warning, the steel support systems buckled and the concrete and glass skywalks crashed onto the crowded lobby. The devastation reverberated far beyond the ruins. Firefighters, police officers, and paramedics suffered from deep depression, cycled through divorce, hit the bottle, and in some instances committed suicide. The hotel had been built using a new fast-track method with key construction decisions often made on the fly, including changing the skywalk design from six heavy hanger rods to twelve thinner poles. Within a year the skywalks were splintering inside. Even then the collapse could have been averted, but special inspection panels to check the hanging walkways were never opened. Though wholly avoidable, the Hyatt disaster did bring significant changes-some good and some problematic. Tougher industry guidelines were enforced for US construction projects. Police officers, firefighters, and health care workers are now treated for PTSD and other psychological trauma after working a tragic event. But the rush to settle all the Hyatt lawsuits helped usher in a controversial new era of nondisclosure agreements. Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks explores America's worst structural engineering disaster. Though the world has moved on, survivors and witnesses still vividly recall that night. This is their story"--

Author : Richard A. Serrano
Publisher : Purdue University Press
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2021-09-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781612497174

Get Book

Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks by Richard A. Serrano Pdf

In 1981 the sudden collapse of two skywalks in Kansas City’s Hyatt hotel killed 114 people and injured another 200. There never was a public trial, nor a full airing of everything that went wrong. Richard A. Serrano shared a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the disaster at the time; now he returns to the tragedy to learn all that went wrong, how it could have been avoided, and what lasting effects persist today—for engineering and the legal system, but most importantly those who suffered. Drawing on legal depositions, evidentiary material, and recollections from 240 survivors, first responders, and construction officials, Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks is the story of this monumental catastrophe and what it teaches us today. The Friday evening Tea Dance was all the rage that summer of 1981. Each week the lobby filled with throngs of revelers, some celebrating atop the skywalks themselves. On July 17, without warning, the steel support systems buckled and the concrete and glass skywalks crashed onto the crowded lobby. The devastation reverberated far beyond the ruins. Firefighters, police officers, and paramedics suffered from deep depression, cycled through divorce, hit the bottle, and in some instances committed suicide. The hotel had been built using a new fast-track method with key construction decisions often made on the fly, including changing the skywalk design from six heavy hanger rods to twelve thinner poles. Within a year the skywalks were splintering inside. Even then the collapse could have been averted, but special inspection panels to check the hanging walkways were never opened. Though wholly avoidable, the Hyatt disaster did bring significant changes—some good and some problematic. Tougher industry guidelines were enforced for US construction projects. Police officers, firefighters, and health care workers are now treated for PTSD and other psychological trauma after working a tragic event. But the rush to settle all the Hyatt lawsuits helped usher in a controversial new era of nondisclosure agreements. Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks explores America’s worst structural engineering disaster. Though the world has moved on, survivors and witnesses still vividly recall that night. This is their story.

Author : R. Eli Paul
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2023-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781496234902

Get Book

Skywalks by R. Eli Paul Pdf

In 1981 the suspended walkways—or “skywalks”—in Kansas City’s Hyatt Regency hotel fell and killed 114 people. It was the deadliest building collapse in the United States until the fall of New York’s Twin Towers on 9/11. In Skywalks R. Eli Paul follows the actions of attorney Robert Gordon, an insider to the bitter litigation that followed. Representing the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against those who designed, built, inspected, owned, and managed the hotel, Gordon was tenacious in uncovering damaging facts. He wanted his findings presented before a jury, where his legal team would assign blame from underlings to corporate higher-ups, while securing a massive judgment in his clients’ favor. But when the case was settled out from under Gordon, he turned to another medium to get the truth out: a quixotic book project that consumed the rest of his life. For a decade the irascible attorney-turned-writer churned through a succession of high-powered literary agents, talented ghost writers, and New York trade publishers. Gordon’s resistance to collaboration and compromise resulted in a controversial but unpublishable manuscript, “House of Cards,” finished long after the public’s interest had waned. His conclusions, still explosive but never receiving their proper attention, laid the blame for the disaster largely at the feet of the hotel’s owner and Kansas City’s most visible and powerful corporation, Hallmark Cards Inc. Gordon gave up his lucrative law practice and lived the rest of his life as a virtual recluse in his mansion in Mission Hills, Kansas. David had fought Goliath, and to his despair, Goliath had won. Gordon died in 2008 without ever seeing his book published or the full truth told. Skywalks is a long-overdue corrective, built on a foundation of untapped historical materials Gordon compiled, as well as his own unpublished writings.

Author : Roxanna McDonald
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2007-06-01
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781136392191

Get Book

Introduction to Natural and Man-made Disasters and Their Effects on Buildings by Roxanna McDonald Pdf

This is a comprehensive guide to all types of natural and man made disasters and their effect on buildings. It gives overall guidance and a basic technical understanding of prevention, mitigation and management of disaster, and outlines a checklist of preventive design elements for each situation. Every category is illustrated with a case study which pin points the essential information that is crucial to architects and engineers in designing buildings with disaster prevention in mind. The aim of the book is to give a clear understanding of the nature of events and problems, and to enable readers to respond with knowledge to the unique demands placed on their designs. A special emphasis is also placed on re-building as an opportunity to start again. For the specialists this is a process of constant learning and improving techniques in the light of events past.

Author : Richard A. Serrano
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2013-10-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9781588343956

Get Book

Last of the Blue and Gray by Richard A. Serrano Pdf

Richard Serrano, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Los Angeles Times, pens a story of two veterans. In the late 1950s, as America prepared for the Civil War centennial, two very old men lay dying. Albert Woolson, 109 years old, slipped in and out of a coma at a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital, his memories as a Yankee drummer boy slowly dimming. Walter Williams, at 117 blind and deaf and bedridden in his daughter's home in Houston, Texas, no longer could tell of his time as a Confederate forage master. The last of the Blue and the Gray were drifting away; an era was ending. Unknown to the public, centennial officials, and the White House too, one of these men was indeed a veteran of that horrible conflict and one according to the best evidence nothing but a fraud. One was a soldier. The other had been living a great, big lie.

Author : Kevin Murphy,Rick Alm,Carol Powers,Kansas City star (Kansas City, Mo. : 1885)
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 155 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2011-07-15
Category : Disasters
ISBN : 1611690129

Get Book

The Last Dance by Kevin Murphy,Rick Alm,Carol Powers,Kansas City star (Kansas City, Mo. : 1885) Pdf

Author : Diane Vaughan
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 622 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2016-01-04
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780226346960

Get Book

The Challenger Launch Decision by Diane Vaughan Pdf

“An in-depth account of the events and personal actions which led to a great tragedy in the history of America’s space program.” —James D. Smith, former Solid Rocket Booster Chief, NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986, millions of Americans became bound together in a single, historic moment. Many still vividly remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the tragedy. Diane Vaughan recreates the steps leading up to that fateful decision, contradicting conventional interpretations to prove that what occurred at NASA was not skullduggery or misconduct but a disastrous mistake. Why did NASA managers, who not only had all the information prior to the launch but also were warned against it, decide to proceed? In retelling how the decision unfolded through the eyes of the managers and the engineers, Vaughan uncovers an incremental descent into poor judgment, supported by a culture of high-risk technology. She reveals how and why NASA insiders, when repeatedly faced with evidence that something was wrong, normalized the deviance so that it became acceptable to them. In a new preface, Vaughan reveals the ramifications for this book and for her when a similar decision-making process brought down NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003. “Vaughn finds the traditional explanation of the [Challenger] accident to be profoundly unsatisfactory . . . One by one, she unravels the conclusions of the Rogers Commission.” —The New York Times “A landmark study.” —Atlantic “Vaughn gives us a rare view into the working level realities of NASA . . . The cumulative force of her argument and evidence is compelling.” —Scientific American

Author : Peter A. Claisse
Publisher : Butterworth-Heinemann
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2015-09-03
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9780128027516

Get Book

Civil Engineering Materials by Peter A. Claisse Pdf

Civil Engineering Materials explains why construction materials behave the way they do. It covers the construction materials content for undergraduate courses in civil engineering and related subjects and serves as a valuable reference for professionals working in the construction industry. The book concentrates on demonstrating methods to obtain, analyse and use information rather than focusing on presenting large amounts of data. Beginning with basic properties of materials, it moves on to more complex areas such as the theory of concrete durability and corrosion of steel. Discusses the broad scope of traditional, emerging, and non-structural materials Explains what material properties such as specific heat, thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity are and how they can be used to calculate the performance of construction materials. Contains numerous worked examples with detailed solutions that provide precise references to the relevant equations in the text. Includes a detailed section on how to write reports as well as a full section on how to use and interpret publications, giving students and early career professionals valuable practical guidance.

Author : Kim S. Elliott,Colin Jolly
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 1 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2013-10-07
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781118587355

Get Book

Multi-Storey Precast Concrete Framed Structures by Kim S. Elliott,Colin Jolly Pdf

Precast reinforced and prestressed concrete frames provide a high strength, stable, durable and robust solution for any multi-storey structure, and are widely regarded as a high quality, economic and architecturally versatile technology for the construction of multi-storey buildings. The resulting buildings satisfy a wide range of commercial and industrial needs. Precast concrete buildings behave in a different way to those where the concrete is cast in-situ, with the components subject to different forces and movements. These factors are explored in detail in the second edition of Multi-Storey Precast Concrete Framed Structures, providing a detailed understanding of the procedures involved in precast structural design. This new edition has been fully updated to reflect recent developments, and includes many structural calculations based on EUROCODE standards. These are shown in parallel with similar calculations based on British Standards to ensure the designer is fully aware of the differences required in designing to EUROCODE standards. Civil and structural engineers as well as final year undergraduate and postgraduate students of civil and structural engineering will all find this book to be thorough overview of this important construction technology.

Author : Marc S. Gerstein,Michael Ellsberg
Publisher : Union Square + ORM
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2009-10-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781402776793

Get Book

Flirting with Disaster by Marc S. Gerstein,Michael Ellsberg Pdf

This analysis of catastrophes provides a pathway for those who want to foster truthtelling in their organization and head off disasters in the making. We tend to think of disasters as uncontrollable acts of nature or inevitable accidents. But are such incidents unavoidable or ever truly accidental? The authors of this remarkable book say we actually do have the power to prevent tragedies such as the flooding from Hurricane Katrina, the death toll from dangerous medicines like Vioxx, and the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Marc Gerstein and Michael Ellsberg insist that disasters need not be inevitable if we learn from history, prepare carefully for the worst case, and speak out when we see danger looming. This revelation makes their compelling study extremely valuable for readers in business, government, medicine, academia—indeed all walks of life. Flirting with Disaster will do for catastrophe what Blink did for intuition, and The Black Swan did for probability: provide a popular audience with an engaging, in-depth view of a complex and important topic. Gerstein and Ellsberg examine the culture of institutions: why even people of good will and inside knowledge underestimate risk; feel psychologically incapable of averting tragedy and unable to pick up the pieces afterward; and don’t come forward forcefully enough to head off catastrophe. They also celebrate those who go beyond the call of duty to save others, including Dr. David Graham of the FDA who courageously stood up to reveal Vioxx’s deadly effects. One such whistleblower contributes both a foreword and an afterword: Daniel Ellsberg, renowned for releasing the Pentagon Papers.

Author : C. Ray Asfahl,David W. Rieske
Publisher : Prentice Hall
Page : 577 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780132368711

Get Book

Industrial Safety and Health Management by C. Ray Asfahl,David W. Rieske Pdf

Industrial Safety And Health Management is ideal for senior/graduate-level courses in Industrial Safety, Industrial Engineering, Industrial Technology, and Operations Management. It isuseful f or industrial engineers.

Author : William N. Findley,Francis A. Davis
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2013-01-15
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780486145174

Get Book

Creep and Relaxation of Nonlinear Viscoelastic Materials by William N. Findley,Francis A. Davis Pdf

This pioneering book presents the basic theory, experimental methods, experimental results and solution of boundary value problems in a readable, useful way to designers as well as research workers and students. The mathematical background required has been kept to a minimum and supplemented by explanations where it has been necessary to introduce specialized mathematics. Also, appendices have been included to provide sufficient background in Laplace transforms and in step functions. Chapters 1 and 2 contain an introduction and historic review of creep. As an aid to the reader a background on stress, strain, and stress analysis is provided in Chapters 3 and 4, an introduction to linear viscoelasticity is found in Chapter 5 and linear viscoelastic stress analysis in Chapter 6. In the next six chapters the multiple integral representation of nonlinear creep and relaxation, and simplifications to single integral forms and incompressibility, are examined at length. After a consideration of other representations, general relations are derived, then expanded to components of stress or strain for special cases. Both constant stress (or strain) and variable states are described, together with methods of determining material constants. Conversion from creep to relaxation, effects of temperature and stress analysis problems in nonlinear materials are also treated here. Finally, Chapter 13 discusses experimental methods for creep and stress relaxation under combined stress. This chapter considers especially those experimental problems which must be solved properly when reliable experimental results of high precision are required. Six appendices present the necessary mathematical background, conversion tables, and more rigorous derivations than employed in the text. An extensive updated bibliography completes the book.

Author : Peter E. Hodgkinson,Michael Stewart
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2006-05-10
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781134703128

Get Book

Coping With Catastrophe by Peter E. Hodgkinson,Michael Stewart Pdf

Coping with Catastrophe is a practical handbook for people who provide psychosocial aftercare for victims of disasters. This completely revised and updated second edition includes the latest findings on the nature and effects of trauma, the psychological debriefing process and the effects of emergency work, and the latest treatment models for post-traumatic stress and abnormal grief. Eminently practical and easy to read, Coping with Catastrophe provides readers with information and skills to respond effectively and confidently to the needs of disaster survivors. It will be of immense value to a wide variety of helping professionals and carers, including social workers, psychologists, doctors, voluntary counsellors, and all those whose work brings them into contact with disaster victims.

Author : Wai-Fah Chen,Atef F. Saleeb
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 594 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-22
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781483101965

Get Book

Constitutive Equations for Engineering Materials by Wai-Fah Chen,Atef F. Saleeb Pdf

Constitutive Equations for Engineering Materials, Volume 1: Elasticity and Modeling, Revised Edition focuses on theories on elasticity and plasticity of engineering materials. The book first discusses vectors and tensors. Coordinate systems, vector algebra, scalar products, vector products, transformation of coordinates, indicial notation and summation convention, and triple products are then discussed. The text also ponders on analysis of stress and strain and presents numerical analysis. The book then discusses elastic stress-strain relations. Basic assumptions; need for elastic models; isotropic linear stress-strain relations; principle of virtual work; strain energy and complementary energy density in elastic solids; and incremental relations grounded on secant moduli are described. The text also explains linear elasticity and failure criteria for concrete and non-linear elasticity and hypoelastic models for concrete. The selection further tackles soil elasticity and failure criteria. Mechanical behavior of soils; failure criteria of soils; and incremental stress-strain models based on modification of the isotropic linear elastic formulation are considered. The text is a good source of data for readers interested in studying the elasticity and plasticity of engineering materials.

Author : Tao Zhang,Luca Delgrossi
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2012-09-04
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781118452196

Get Book

Vehicle Safety Communications by Tao Zhang,Luca Delgrossi Pdf

Provides an up-to-date, in-depth look at the current research, design, and implementation of cooperative vehicle safety communication protocols and technology Improving traffic safety has been a top concern for transportation agencies around the world and the focus of heavy research and development efforts sponsored by both governments and private industries. Cooperative vehicle systems—which use sensors and wireless technologies to reduce traffic accidents—can play a major role in making the world's roads safer. Vehicle Safety Communications: Protocols, Security, and Privacy describes fundamental issues in cooperative vehicle safety and recent advances in technologies for enabling cooperative vehicle safety. It gives an overview of traditional vehicle safety issues, the evolution of vehicle safety technologies, and the need for cooperative systems where vehicles work together to reduce the number of crashes or mitigate damage when crashes become unavoidable. Authored by two top industry professionals, the book: Summarizes the history and current status of 5.9 GHz Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology and standardization, discussing key issues in applying DSRC to support cooperative vehicle safety Features an in-depth overview of on-board equipment (OBE) and roadside equipment (RSE) by describing sample designs to illustrate the key issues and potential solutions Takes on security and privacy protection requirements and challenges, including how to design privacy-preserving digital certificate management systems and how to evict misbehaving vehicles Includes coverage of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications like intersection collision avoidance applications and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications like extended electronic brake lights and intersection movement assist Vehicle Safety Communications is ideal for anyone working in the areas of—or studying—cooperative vehicle safety and vehicle communications.