City landscape....something is missing here.....

Ok, maybe we shouldn't be surprised by strange weather anymore. Vancouver's been having very strange weather in these past few months....major wind storms, major rain storms, and snow!!!

This morning was ALL 3! Sheesh! Snow turned to freezing rain, AND wind. Slow drivers, delayed or cancelled transit service....oh and LOOK, BC Place Stadium roof has collapsed! Yikes!!!

Kind of crazy since the roof isn't like a regular building. It isn't made out of anything hard like steel, concrete or wood, but is made of fabric and is supported by air pressure. So a tear (which of course grew), released the air pressure (described as sounding like an explosion) and is now inverted (think deflated ballon over a drum) inside the concrete base of the stadium....

So, a tear in fabric roof = release of air pressure along with loud explosion sound = collapsed roof. 1 reported injured or in danger so far.... Not sure about the timeline but it happened probably within the last 2 hours or so. :(

The impact of this? Well, many events occur there including concerts and fundraisers. BC Lions play in that stadium (CFL football) and that was supposed to be the location of the opening and closing ceremonies of Winter Olympic Games in 2010.... Yeah....better get to fixing that roof.... No cost overruns my foot. Everyone knows there are ALWAYS unexpected costs. Has anyone EVER heard of an olympics games coming on budget?? *sigh*

Here are some facts I found about BC Place Stadium at: http://www.bcplacestadium.com/backgrounder.shtml

RAISING THE ROOF
- B.C. Place is the world’s largest air-supported domed stadium covering 10 acres in all, with a circumference of 760 metres (2,500 feet).
- There is enough concrete in B.C. Place to build a sidewalk from Vancouver to Tacoma, Washington.
- The roof sports 10 acres of fibreglass woven fabric. There are 2 layers of fabric with a 4 foot space between them.
- When it snows, hot air is pumped between these layers to melt 6 inches of snow per hour.
- The roof lets in 20% natural light. That’s because the total thickness of each layer is only 1/30 inch (0.85 millimetres).
- Sixteen fans were used to inflate the roof...in less than 1 hour! This extra air pressure is the only thing keeping the roof up –– there are no beams or steel used at all to support it! If the fans were turned off and the doors shut, it would take 4 - 6 hours to deflate the roof.

....unfortunately, it got deflated in a different manner.

I really hope there aren't that many injuries. :(

Horrible weather indeed!