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U.S. NEWS Monday 21 october 2019
Leaning cranes toppled at partly collapsed New Orleans hotel

By REBECCA SANTANA or said padding that was to gawk as police did their
Associated Press designed to protect the final checks.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Thun- gas and electric lines — a Loud alarms sounded, and
dering explosions toppled major concern — worked a voice on the police radio
two cranes Sunday that as expected. He added said repeatedly "Prepare
had loomed precariously that one crane fell and got for detonation!" before ex-
for days over a partially "hooked on the building like plosions set off a thunder-
collapsed hotel in New Or- we wanted. It's very stable." ous boom. Flashes from the
leans, in what city officials He said "it's way better than blasts could be seen as the
hailed as a success and what it looks" because of explosives went off.
said efforts now would fo- the way it is resting, adding One crane that officials
cus on retrieving two bod- it would now be cut away had been referring to as
ies still inside the ruined in pieces by workers using Charlie landed on Rampart
building. another crane and taken Street — standing straight
The fiery afternoon ex- away. up — the blackened end
plosions sent up massive Officials had repeated- visible where the explosives Two large cranes from the Hard Rock Hotel construction collapse
clouds of dust and sent ly asked people not to had been placed. are seen in this aerial photo after crashing down, after being
one crane crashing to the come see the explosions "We did shake the building detonated for implosion in New Orleans, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019.
street while the second fell but there were still throngs pretty good," McConnell Associated Press
in a way that left much of of people on the streets. said. Cantrell told report- the streets shortly after the near one of the bodies be-
it resting atop the hotel Some had brought their ers that authorities will now blasts, and engineers were fore the crane demolition
where officials said it was own earplugs and masks begin focusing on bring- going through the building so they would know where
"stable" and could be re- to protect against the dust. ing out the bodies of the to assess the situation as a to locate it, and the demo-
moved piecemeal. Others had to be removed two remaining workers. Al- drone flew overhead for an lition didn't seem to affect
"We know that we are saf- from nearby rooftops ready, workers were begin- aerial view. The mayor said the areas where the bodies
er now than we have been where they had gathered ning to remove rubble from a monitor had been placed were.q
in the past eight days," said
Mayor LaToya Cantrell,
speaking at a news confer-
ence after the explosions
roared through the city's
downtown.
It was a little more than
a week ago — Oct. 12
— that the Hard Rock Ho-
tel that was under con-
struction near the historic
French Quarter partially
collapsed. Three workers
died that day when sev-
eral floors of the multistory
building pancaked. Only
one body has been re-
moved so far.
The cranes — one around
270 feet (82 meters) high,
the other about 300 feet
(91 meters) — weighed
thousands of tons and
were badly damaged in
the collapse. They had
been tilting dangerously,
and officials had feared
the towers would come
down on their own, pos-
sibly smashing into nearby
buildings or severely dam-
aging underground gas
and electric lines.
But once the dust had
cleared Sunday, it ap-
peared that none of those
worst-case scenarios
came to pass. The mayor
said three windows at the
historic Saenger Theater
across the street were
damaged but they hadn't
received reports of other
buildings damaged.
A sewer line was dam-
aged as well, but the may-