BREAKING NEWS: One killed, 4 trapped at Rice Dorm Collapse!

Parent Cafe
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<p>HOUSTON -- Houston firefighters rushed to the Rice University campus Thursday afternoon where a building collapsed during a severe thunderstorm.</p>

<p>AIR 11</p>

<p>A patient is lowered to the ground after being freed from the rubble of the dorm collapse.</p>

<p>One person was killed and seven were injured, according to Assistant Houston Fire Chief Rick Flanagan.</p>

<p>It happened at a new dormitory that was under construction. A second-floor wall collapsed without warning.</p>

<p>Firefighters rescued at least four people who were trapped in the second-floor rubble, lowering them to the ground on gurneys.</p>

<p>Also online</p>

<p>Live coverage from 11 News</p>

<p>11 News reporter Vicente Arenas said he saw two of the injured being treated and they did not appear to be critically injured.</p>

<p>At least five patients were taken to Ben Taub and Memorial Hermann hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, just blocks away.</p>

<p>“I didn’t see anything. I just heard what sounded like a big explosion," said one witness who said his name was Stephen. "We didn’t see anything, we just heard the sirens and saw the ambulances.”</p>

<p>It's not clear if the collapse is related to severe weather rolling through the area at the time. </p>

<p>I hope everyone that has a child has made sure that they are ok.</p>

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<p>If the dorm was under construction, it’s likely that the people who were killed and injured were construction workers, rather than students. This doesn’t make the situation any less horrifying, but I doubt that parents of students need to be worried.</p>

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<p>Oh I misread it. I thought it was under construction as in being renovated.</p>

<p>Ah well. It’s still a horrible event though.</p>

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<p>Yes this article seems to indicate it was construction workers. We’re about 10 minutes from Rice and we’ve had some really wicked thunderstorms this afternoon.</p>

<p>[One</a> dead, seven injured in wall collapse at Rice | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle](<a href=“http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5846941.html]One”>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5846941.html)</p>

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<p>Highlandmom, we live in Houston, too. I saw on the news that it was definitely all construction workers, but it struck me as strange that they would have been working out there in that weather. Horrible thunderstorms with high winds…doesn’t make any sense!</p>

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<p>Our thoughts and prayers once again go out to the Rice community. My s just emailed/Im’ed his friends to alert them. Prayers too to the families of the construction workers.</p>

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<p>timely you’re so right - it doesn’t make sense for them to be out in that weather. I had to pick up my D from piano at 4pm and it took us 3x as long to get home as normal. The water on the roads was amazing.</p>