Collapsing Buildings and Roadways

[Starr DiGiacomo]

Building Collapse in Manchester, UK

October 17, 2025, a playground collapsed at Zijiang School in Shaoyang City, Hunan Province, fortunately no casualties were reported. The Zijiang School playground collapse emergency response headquarters announced on Saturday that they have begun an investigation to the cause.

The emergency response headquarters confirmed that the west wall and some playgrounds of the campus of the school collapsed, and the corners of the west side of the Boxue Building (teaching building) were damaged.

ZETATALK: THE STRETCH ZONE, THAT SINKING FEELING

ZetaTalk explores the concept of Earth's "stretch zones"—regions where tectonic plates are being pulled apart due to planetary forces, particularly in anticipation of a predicted pole shift. It focuses heavily on the eastern seaboard of the U.S., the Caribbean, and parts of Europe, warning that these areas will experience significant land subsidence due to the widening of the Atlantic Rift.

Key points include:

• Historical evidence of submerged forests and civilizations off the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda.

• Predictions that areas like Florida, Georgia, and the UK will lose elevation and be permanently flooded.

• A detailed catalog of sinkholes, train derailments, infrastructure collapses, and mysterious odors from 2004–2005, interpreted as signs of Earth stretching.

• The concept of “imploding cities”, where underground infrastructure fails due to shifting rock layers.

• Warnings to relocate from vulnerable coastal and low-lying areas before the pole shift occurs.

More: https://www.zetatalk.com/index/blog1010.htm

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.ibtimes.com/least-15-dead-25-feared-trapped-india-build...

At Least 15 Dead, 25 Feared Trapped In India Building Collapse

Sept 21 2020

At least 15 people were killed and up to 25 others were still feared trapped Monday after a three-storey apartment block collapsed in western India, officials said.

Local residents cheered as emergency workers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) pulled 20 survivors -- including two boys aged four and seven -- from the rubble of the building in Bhiwandi, near Mumbai.

An NDRF spokesman told reporters that emergency workers had retrieved 15 bodies from the rubble.

NDRF director general Satya Narayan Pradhan tweeted that specialist teams and sniffer dogs were trying to rescue another "20-25 feared trapped".

An official at the Thane city authority, which oversees Bhiwandi, told AFP that more than 40 emergency workers were helping search for survivors.

Images broadcast on the NDRF's official Twitter feed showed emergency workers combing through concrete and brick rubble with electrical wires hanging over their heads.

The cause of the pre-dawn accident was not immediately clear, but building collapses are common during India's June-September monsoon season, with old and rickety structures buckling after days of non-stop rain.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.thedailystar.net/country/news/road-collapses-within-yea...

12:00 AM, September 03, 2020 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, September 03, 2020

Road collapses within a year in Kurigram

Local people have blamed use of substandard materials in the construction work

The road stretching from Narikelbari-Satibari to Khamar Government Primary School in Ulipur municipality of Kurigram district has collapsed at several places. Besides, the guide wall of the road has collapsed, causing immense sufferings to commuters.

All these things happened within a year of the construction of the road.

Local people have blamed use of substandard materials in the construction work of the road.

Due to collapse of the road at various places, the width of the road has shrunk to six to four feet from its original width of 10 feet.

According to the municipality sources, in November 2018, the construction work of the road was started at a cost of Tk 96 lakh under the JICA project and it was completed in June 2019. Guide walls were constructed at two places to protect the road from being damaged by Buri Teesta river water.

Mahbubul Alam, assistant engineer of the municipality, said contractor Shah Alam, owner of Messrs' Sunflower Firm, got the work order but sub-contractor Shahinur Alamgir, owner of Anwesha Traders, did the road construction work. 

 Mahbubul told The Daily Star that the road was damaged in a short time due to heavy rains and waters from the river. The contractor is yet to submit the final bill. The contractor has already been given a show-cause notice and he has been asked to renovate the road.

Asked about the poor quality work of the road, the engineer said substandard materials were not used in the construction work.

The road is at high risk of collapse as it is on the bank of the Buri Teesta river, he said. 

 Contacted, Shahinur Alamgir, sub-contractor, said the road and guide wall were damaged by the Buri Teesta river water.

If the municipality authorities ask him to renovate the road, he will do it, said Shahinur. 

 Kamruzzaman Miah, a resident of Narikelbari area, said local people protested when substandard materials were being used in the road construction work. But the municipality authorities did not listen to the protesters then as the contractor is a local Awami League leader.

The road is still collapsing at different places, he said, adding that vehicles and pedestrians cannot move smoothly on the road now due to its bad condition.

The condition of the road usually turns very bad during monsoon, said Kamruzzaman, adding that due to this, the commuters have to suffer a lot. 

 Abdul Khaleq, a resident of Satibari area in the municipality, said due to use of low quality construction materials, the road collapsed at different places. The road got badly damaged within a year of its construction.

The road may fully collapse any time due to heavy rains if it is not renovated immediately, he said.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/mumbai-building-collapse-don...

Part of building collapses in Mumbai; woman feared trapped

The back portion of an eight-storey residential building collapsed in Dongri area of Mumbai on Wednesday morning and a woman was feared trapped under a staircase there, a civic official said. 

September 02, 2020 11:03 IST

The back portion of an eight-storey residential building collapsed in Dongri area of Mumbai on Wednesday morning and a woman was feared trapped under a staircase there, a civic official said. Fire brigade, police and ambulances rushed to the spot and search and rescue operations were underway, he said.

The incident took place on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Road in Dongri area around 7.30 am when the entire back portion between the third and seventh floors of the old building collapsed, the official said

A woman was feared trapped under a staircase of the building and efforts were on to rescue her, the official said

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/4-storey-redeveloped-tha...

4-storey redeveloped Palghar building collapses, lucky escape for residents

The building had been declared unfit for occupancy by the authorities, yet some families continued to live there.

Updated: Sep 02, 2020 12:44 IST

Just nine days after a five-storey building in Raigad district of Maharashtra collapsed, killing 16 people and injuring nine others, a 25-year-old four-storey re-developed building named Safalya in Palghar’s Majithia Park collapsed around 0115 hrs on Wednesday. However, five families consisting of 22 members escaped unhurt.

The Nalasopara building was redeveloped in 2009, but in 2018 major cracks had developed in a few parts of the structure, following which the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) had declared the building dangerous and unfit for residents and issued evacuation notices to 20 odd flat owners. Around 15 families moved out, but five families consisting of 22 people, including men, women, children and senior citizens, decided to stay back in the building.

An unidentified resident said they stayed back since they could not afford steep rents in other buildings and we were fighting a court case against Abhay Naik, the builder, for shoddy construction using bad quality cement and materials. He alleged that Naik had also made some illegal structures without an approval from the VVMC.

A few of the residents had held a meeting in the building premises on the evening of Anant Chaturdashi (Tuesday) when they noticed a huge pile of soil near the main gate following which, the residents decided to lodge a complaint with the Vasai civic body on Wednesday.

At around 2315 hrs, while the residents were preparing to go to bed, they heard sounds of falling rubble. Upon inspection of the building they found out that a portion of the structure had fallen down and deeper cracks had emerged in the building.

Panicked residents evacuated the flats and gathered inside the building compound when at around 0100 hrs, the entire building collapsed like a pack of cards, moments after a couple identified as Dayanand Deorukhkar and Seema came down from their fourth floor flat in a miraculous escape.

The Vasai civic fire brigade services were at the spot to clear the debris and the disaster response team could be called for further help. The Nalla Sopara police were taking statements from the residents and the process of registering an FIR was on.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a33836203/building-collapses-on-dona...

A Building Collapses on 700 Bikes Donated for St. Louis Bicycle Works

THE BEST WAY TO HELP RIGHT NOW IS TO DONATE ON THE ST. LOUIS BICYCLE WORKS WEBSITE OR VIA PAYPAL.

Aug 31, 2020

• On August 23, a warehouse building in St. Louis, Missouri, where about 700 donated bikes were being stored for a nonprofit, collapsed.
• No one was inside the building when the collapse happened, but members of St. Louis Bicycle Works had been using the space earlier that week.
• The best way to help is to drop off a bike for donation to the office in St. Louis, or to donate through PayPal.

---

A building in the historic Lemp Brewery complex in St. Louis, Missouri, partially collapsed on August 23, burying an estimated 700 bikes donated to St. Louis Bicycle Works. It’s a hard blow for the local nonprofit program, especially as people are relying on bicycles for transportation—or as a safe form of exercise and recreation during the coronavirus pandemic—now more than ever.

No one was inside the building when the collapse occurred. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the nonprofit’s executive director Patrick Van Der Tuin said he had recently reported loose bricks falling from the building and that caution tape was put up around the building last week. The building’s owner, Shashi Palamand, said that an engineer and masonry company had reportedly declared the building to be structurally sound within the past few weeks.

“During the pandemic, we’ve been storing even more bikes than usual at the Lemp facility, as well as working out of there for better social distancing. We are so grateful that no one was in the space when it collapsed,” BWorks said in its Facebook post.

St. Louis Bicycle Works is one of the charter programs of St. Louis BWorks—or BWorks for short. The organization was established in 1988, and runs an Earn-a-Bike program, where local kids—around 350 participate each year—learn about bicycle safety and maintenance and receive a bike upon finishing the program.

The building had served as the nonprofit’s main storage area for most of its donated bikes. According to the program’s Facebook post, around 350 of those bikes were already set aside for kids graduating from this year’s Earn-a-Bike program.

[Want to fly up hills? Climb! gives you the workouts and mental strategies to conquer your nearest peak.]

“Another 200 adult bikes were destined for other local and international nonprofits to be used for transportation, and still another 100 adult bikes were to be refurbished and sold to help fund our nonprofit and keep our youth programs free to families in our community,” read the Facebook post.

The rest of the building will be demolished, and there’s no word yet on how many bikes can be salvaged.

The building collapse is the latest misfortune for BWorks; just two weeks prior, the nonprofit’s Ford F-250 truck, which was used to transport bikes, was stolen.

Those who are interested in donating a bike can drop it off at BWork’s main location at 2414 Menard Street in St. Louis. You can also donate to St. Louis Bicycle Works by sending a check to their office (more information here) or through PayPal.

and another:

http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006120/29-dead-in-building-collapse-...

29 Dead in Building Collapse as Birthday Celebration Goes Awry

August 30 2020

Linfen residents had built the banquet hall out of cheaper, more lightweight construction materials, though the cause of the incident is still being investigated.

A restaurant in northern China’s Shanxi province collapsed Saturday morning, killing 29 people and injuring 28 more, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The incident occurred in the prefecture-level city of Linfen during a gathering organized by a local resident to celebrate his 80th birthday. He had stepped outside for a few moments when he saw the roof of the first-story banquet hall cave in. He survived the collapse, but his wife who remained inside the structure was killed.

At least three children are among the deceased, according to reporters with Sixth Tone’s sister publication The Paper who were at the scene.

The collapsed banquet hall was built in a courtyard between two other buildings by Linfen locals a few years ago. The roof was made with relatively cheap and lightweight — and generally more fragile, compared with reinforced concrete — building materials called prefabricated structural panels. Such panels were once commonly used for construction projects in rural areas.

However, the cause of the collapse is unclear for now. Shanxi’s provincial government has assembled a “major accident investigation team” to look into the incident.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://norwalkreflector.com/news/274983/building-collapses-in-plym...

Building collapses in Plymouth

August 30 2020

PLYMOUTH — It was only a matter of time.

The a portion of the former hotel building at 26 Trux St. in downtown Plymouth collapsed on July 30, prompting the village to close the sidewalk in front and on Ohio 603. The first floor had begun to collapse even before then.

Well, most of the building is now rubble after giving way, as the front portion of the building also collapsed Saturday afternoon.

Negotiations have been ongoing between the building's owner, Donnie Spillman, and the Richland County Land Bank, which plans to demolish the nearly 150-year-old structure on his behalf, according to a story in the Mansfield News Journal.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/suffolk/crews-on-scene-of-indu...

Fatal accident at Amazon job site in Suffolk leaves two dead

Posted: Aug 29, 2020 / 03:03 PM EDT / Updated: Aug 29, 2020 / 09:17 PM EDT

SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — An industrial accident at the Amazon Fulfillment Center job site in Suffolk left two dead on Saturday afternoon.

The call came in around 2:10 p.m. for the incident in the 2000 block of North Gate Commerce Parkway in Suffolk near I-664. Officials confirmed that it was a commercial structural collapse at the site of where the Amazon Center is being built.

According to a press release, two people were confirmed dead and there was concern that some workers were not accounted for.

Fire and rescue crews from Suffolk, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach searched for additional missing persons with assistance from a FEMA K-9 Dog. Concluding the search, officials said that all workers from the job site were accounted for and no additional injuries were reported.

The accident is under investigation by the Suffolk Police and OSHA. No further information is available.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://romesentinel.com/stories/13-die-in-china-building-collapse,...

13 die in China building collapse

Posted Saturday, August 29, 2020 9:58 am

BEIJING (AP) — Thirteen people were killed in China after a two-story restaurant collapsed during a gathering this morning, state media said.

State broadcaster CCTV said in a social media post that 30 other people were brought out from the rubble, including four with serious injuries. The restaurant was in Shanxi province’s Xiangfen county, 400 miles southwest of Beijing.

The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear.

Hundreds of rescue workers, wearing hardhats and face masks, searched for trapped people in a daylong operation.

Video posted by CCTV showed them hefting heavy pieces of concrete. At least once, the remaining frame of the building shook but didn’t fall.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/business-building-collapses-in-no...

St. Louis, MO

Updated: Aug 28, 2020 / 11:43 AM CDT

ST. LOUIS – For a third time in less than a week, a building collapsed in St. Louis. This time, there were people inside. Fortunately, No one was hurt.

According to the St. Louis Fire Department, the second floor of Dorothy’s TV, Appliance & Furniture, at MLK Drive and Hamilton, fell onto the sidewalk about 10:15 a.m. Friday.

“We were in there just moving some stuff around and we heard this big boom. The next thing you know, we looked up front and everything was just falling,” said employee Leland Vasser. “(It) scared me pretty good. I’m just glad we had that second floor there to keep this stuff from falling down on us.”

Vasser and three others inside the store were frozen in place; there was nowhere to hide. Thankfully, all the tumbling brick and mortar from the second floor did not fall through the ceiling over their heads and no one was hit on the sidewalk. It remained buried by debris Friday evening. Orange cones and police tape surrounded the site as more bricks appeared ready to fall.

A search dog was used to conduct a search of the building. All of the people in the building were accounted for and no injuries were reported.

Part of a building in the historic Lemp Brewery complex fell over the weekend. A former church on Cook Avenue fell Wednesday. There were no injuries. No was inside either building.

The building on MLK Drive is believed to be about 80 years old.

A resident said a few bricks had already begun to fall earlier this week.

Records show the city’s Building Division opened an investigation there two days before the collapse, inspecting for exterior code violations. Frank Oswald of the city’s Building Division confirmed the building was condemned after the inspection.

The business continued to operate.

More buildings in St. Louis have either started falling or appear ready to fall, with bricks leaning and bowing.

The city has been aggressive in tearing down derelict buildings, going from just 32 demolitions in 2017 to 660 last year, but can’t keep up.

“It is amazing that no one was injured,” said Captain Garon Mosby.

It is such a concern that authorities are taking those watchwords for crime or terrorism—”if you see something, saying something”—and applying them to dangerous buildings.

Wet weather is a huge factor, according to experts.

The last time St. Louis had below average rainfall for a year was 2017.

According to the National Weather Service, St. Louis has had nearly 40 inches of precipitation in 2020, more than a foot above normal after being 13 inches above normal in 2019.

With all of that moisture and a lack of maintenance, old brick buildings can essentially get soft as wet bricks and mortar expand and contract through repeated hot and cool cycles.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/collapsing-buildings-and-r...

Dozens feared trapped in building collapse in India's Maharashtra state

August 24, 2020

New Delhi (CNN)Up to 60 people are believed to be trapped and some 18 injured following a building collapse in India's western Maharashtra state.

The figures are based on initial reports, according to Anupam Srivastava, head of the state unit for the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Three teams from the NDRF are en route from the city of Pune to Mahad city in Raigaid district where the five-story building collapsed, Srivastava told CNN.

The teams are expected to reach the site in the early hours of Tuesday morning local time (5 pm ET), when they will have "a better idea of the situation," he added.

Up to 60 people are believed to be trapped after the five-story building in Mahad city collapsed.

Following the incident, the Twitter account for the office of Maharashtra's Chief Minister Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray tweeted: "CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray spoke to MLA @BharatGogawale and Collector Nidhi Chaudhary to inquire about the building collapse in Mahad. He has assured them that all possible support will be extended for speedy rescue & relief works."

India's home affairs minister, Amit Shah, tweeted: "The collapse of a building in Raigad, Maharashtra is very tragic. Have spoken to DG @NDRFHQ to provide all possible assistance, teams are on the way and will be assisting with the rescue operations as soon as possible. Praying for everyone's safety."

For centuries, agriculture in South Asia has depended on the annual monsoon, which stretches from about June until September. But intense rains and floods also cause devastation and billions of dollars in damage and economic loss across much of the region every year.

The southwestern state of Kerala has been battered by rain and flooding this season. At least 43 people, including three children, died earlier this month after torrential rains triggered a landslide.

Monsoon rains have triggered deadly flooding in the eastern Indian states of Assam and Bihar since May, affecting more than 2.4 million people, swamping large parts of a national park, and killing more than 100 wild animals, including a dozen rhinos.

Elsewhere in the region, Nepal has endured massive landslides and severe flooding, while nearly one third of Bangladesh -- and a fifth of its population of 161 million people -- have been affected by floods.