Indiana Stage Collapse Kills Five; Rapper Takes Heat for Tweet
WHITFIELD: Top stories now, tragedy at the Indiana State Fair. A massive burst of wind swept through a grandstand where hundreds of people were attending a concert. At least five people were killed and dozens more were hurt. Before the collapse concert goers had about a four-minute warning from a local radio station there to seek shelter because severe weather was on the way.</s>SGT. DAVE BURSTEN, INDIANA STATE POLICE: In Indiana, the weather can change from one report to another report, and that was the case here. And it really wasn't the issue of the weather as it was with the high gust of wind. What's remarkable about this is virtually throughout the rest of the fairgrounds, the midway particularly, there were no damages to structures there, which is continuing to lead us to believe this was an isolated, significant wind gust that resulted in what occurred.</s>WHITFIELD: The Indiana State Fair is closed today and plans to reopen tomorrow. And this is the house in Lahore, Pakistan where American Warren Weinstein was abducted at gunpoint yesterday. No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping or issued any demands for his release. Warren Weinstein is an international development expert who works for a consulting firm headquartered in Virginia. Shreveport, Louisiana now, hometown to two of the U.S. Navy SEALs killed in last weekend's helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Family and friends of one of those SEALs, Chief Petty Officer Robert Reeves, gathered to honor him yesterday. And it is a welcome sight in Texas, rain close to an inch fell near the Dallas Fort Worth area and provided some relief for the relentless drought that has plagued the state. North Texas have been struggling with a near record breaking heat wave. Today, the forecast calls for the return of triple degree heat. Rain in other parts of the country is triggering a new worry for pet owners. Veterinarians are saying that they are seeing a lot of animals getting sick from toxic, wild mushrooms. Take the case of Champ, the puppy who got sick on a family camping trip.</s>DAVID LYNN, PUPPY'S OWNER: We're sitting around the campfire when we noticed that our 13 week old puppy was just acting really strange and it scared the heck out of us. Feet were going out from under him, he started drooling, and at that point we knew, obviously, we need to make a trip to a - a vet.</s>DR. DAVID ROBINSON, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, EVERGREEN ANIMAL HOSPITAL: We're seeing it fairly frequently, almost daily.</s>WHITFIELD: Whoa. Well, vets say red-colored mushrooms can be lethal for pets and that poisoning from white or brown mushrooms can actually cause seizures or even brain damage. So was it a twitter prank or a PR stunt, or criminal mischief? That's what the L.A. County Sheriff's Department is trying to determine. Police say rapper "The Game," who also goes by the alias "Charles Louboutin," posted the phone number for the Compton Sheriff's Station on Twitter. His followers were told to call for a shot at a music internship. He has more than half a million followers. The sheriff's station was flooded with hang-up calls. When police asked the rapper to take down the tweet, another tweet was posted saying, quite, "Y'all can track a tweet down but can't solve murders? That was an accident, but maybe now y'all can actually do your job." Well, it was hours before the phone number was finally tracked down and police say the flash calls interfered with their ability to answer legitimate 911 calls.</s>PARKER: Legitimately calling through with important calls would include two robberies, a spousal assault, missing person, hit-and-run.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Well "The Game" says his account was hacked, but police say so far they have not seen anything on Twitter to actually confirm that. All right, the pictures coming in from the stage collapse at last night's Indiana State Fair have been downright horrifying. One of our iReporters captured the moment leading up to the collapse and the terror that spread through the crowd as the stage fell. Let's take a moment to watch and listen.</s>WHITFIELD: These terrifying moments were captured by CNN iReporter Jessica Silas. Jessica is on the phone with us right now from Indianapolis. So, Jessica, as we're watching these images, and moments before that collapse, there were people who were screaming in the background. So was there a sense that something very terrible was about to happen the moments before the stage collapsed?</s>JESSICA SILAS, CNN IREPORTER (via telephone): I don't think anyone actually expected for the stage to collapse, but when you hear the people screaming, it was because of the wind and the dust. In the beginning images of the video, you can see that the dust starts coming in. That's why I actually started recorded in the first place, is because I saw the people standing up and screaming and I saw the dust start coming. But no one - I - I can't imagine anyone expected that the stage would actually fall down.</s>WHITFIELD: And apparently some representatives of a radio station got on the stage and told people that they have a four-minute warning before they may want to seek shelter. That's what one of the other eye witnesses we talked at the beginning of the hour said. Do you remember that kind of instruction and, if so, what were you and the people that you were with planning to do?</s>SILAS: I remembered that the person got on stage and said that there was severe weather in the area and that they were going to try to continue with the concert and if the weather got bad, they were going to try to resume afterwards. But I don't really remember him telling us that we were supposed to start evacuating. He said that we were going to keep going with the concert and see how the weather ended up and then five minutes later is when the stage fell.</s>WHITFIELD: And it's amazing that you had the wherewithal to videotaping there and as we're looking at it right now maybe you should talk me through of what you were thinking and feeling. The stage collapses, you continue to roll. There were a number of people who started running towards the stage to help. Take it from there.</s>SILAS: Honestly, I don't even remember. I was pretty much in shock. I didn't expect the stage to fall. I was trying to film the weather actually, the lightning behind it and the wind. And all of a sudden in my camera screen, I saw that the stage had fallen and it was just chaos. People were screaming and yelling, my God, running and I was in shock. I just kept filming because, I guess, I didn't know what else to do. And then eventually my parents were with me and they started yelling at me to get going. And so I stopped recording and followed them out.</s>WHITFIELD: There were thousands of people there. You can see that from your images. So clearly no one knew that this weather would be that dangerous? Had there been any kind of warning or any forecast of maybe not the gust of wind, but what weather might potentially be like that evening.</s>SILAS: About 20 minutes or so before I had noticed that the sky was getting a little bit dark. So I looked on my phone and saw that Indianapolis was in a severe thunderstorm warning. But other than me checking it on my phone, they didn't make a large announcement to the entire crowd other than that person getting on the stage five minutes before it fell saying that there was weather in the area and we might need to evacuate. But other than that, I didn't know of anything.</s>WHITFIELD: Jessica Silas, thanks so much for your images and I'm glad you and your family are OK.</s>SILAS: Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: Appreciate your time. So perhaps you were at the Indiana State Fair last night. We want to hear from you. Send us your video and pictures and story to go along with it at ireport.com. So Indiana's governor is calling what happened at the Indiana State Fair a freakish accident, but even freak accidents really can be explained to a certain degree. Our Jacqui Jeras with us now to give us an idea of wow, she, Jessica tried to explain, you know, that there was some kind of ominous weather. But when we heard from one of the reporters early in the hour, they talked about near hurricane-force wind gusts that moved in.</s>JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sure.</s>WHITFIELD: Might could there have been any warning for this?</s>JERAS: Yes, and there really was, actually. Part of it is upon yourself, you know, to educate yourself. She did the right thing, by the way, checking on her cell phone to say, is there any way I can get more information, you know, to keep yourself safe. There are so many applications. You can go to weather.gov, the National Weather Service home page and that will tell you if there's severe weather that's moving into your area. First of all, earlier in the day there was an outlook issue that included Indianapolis, it said, today, there's a slight risk that we could see some severe thunderstorms. Around 6:00 that night, the yellow box that you see right here, a severe thunderstorm watch was issued. You can see off here to the west and you have to pay attention, what is going on in areas around you. Severe thunderstorms are moving through Chicago that produced damaging winds and hail and that line held together and moved into Indianapolis. Now, where a little bit of the question comes in, it seemed like things were fine. It was dark off into the distance and this was the time that the storm hit. About 8:50, here's the fairgrounds right here, but look where the thunderstorms, where the heavy rain is, where most of the damaging winds are normally way back here. What happened is what we call a gust front. When winds come out ahead of the mainline of the storm and you saw all of that dust starting to kick up and some of that video. What happens is that kind of a situation is that in the downdrafts of the thunderstorm, normally we see it down here near the rain shaft. Sometimes it comes out ahead of the storm, mixes with that warm air and you really get a very strong advanced punch of those winds and we're getting any estimates of those winds, somewhere between maybe 60, 70 miles per hour. So what can you do? How many people at home have not been to an outdoor venue? You know, it's baseball games. It's concerts. It's festivals. It's fairs. What can you do? Well, educate yourself, plan ahead. Check the weather before you go. Is there a risk? And what are you going to do if that severe weather occurs? Make sure you find a meeting place. You know, when this happened, Fredricka, people lost their cell phones so they couldn't get in touch with each other. So you have to find a place where you can go and where you can stay safe. So scan the grounds there. Become familiar with your surroundings. Is there a shelter nearby? Is there a concrete bathroom maybe where you can get inside to a sturdy location. And then also be weather aware in terms of what county you are in. A lot of these people probably weren't from Indianapolis, Fredricka. So you have to know what county you are in for when those warnings are occurring. Yes, use your cell phone if you've got one to help monitor those warnings. A lot of automatic alerts can be issued that we'll tell you right away if severe weather is heading into your neighborhood.</s>WHITFIELD: Wow. All right, great tips to keep in mind. Thanks so much, Jacqui Jeras. Appreciate that.</s>JERAS: Sure.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, so with the surge of new gadgets gearing up for back to school, it's never been this cool. But it is becoming more expensive for parents. So up next, some tips to help you keep some money in your pocket.