Vermont victims named in New Hampshire circus tent collapse
By Ted Siefer
LANCASTER, N.H. (Reuters) - A father and his 8-year-old daughter were killed and about 30 people injured when a circus tent collapsed in New Hampshire during a wind storm, officials said on Tuesday amid a probe into why the show went on despite a severe weather warning.
Robert Young, 41, and his daughter Annabelle, of Concord, Vermont, died of blunt force trauma on Monday when the tent where they were watching the circus collapsed after being hit by 60-mile-per-hour (97-kph) winds, New Hampshire Fire Marshal Bill Degnan told reporters.
"Unfortunately there was a father and daughter that perished in this incident," Degnan told reporters by the site of the collapse, in the town of Lancaster, about 90 miles (145 km) north of the state capital Concord.
The precise number of people injured and the severity of their injuries remained unclear, Degnan said, noting that many had driven themselves to area hospitals. About 100 people were in the tent for the show, which began at 5:30 p.m.
The blue, red and yellow remnants of the tent lay flat on Tuesday, cordoned off with yellow tape as investigators interviewed circus employees.
Circus owner Walker International Events of Sarasota, Florida, had not secured a permit for the performance, Degnan said.
"They just went and set up and did it," he told reporters, adding that circus officials had cooperated with investigators but that it remained unclear why the performance had gone ahead after the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning about 17 minutes before the tent collapse.
"It's really the responsibility of the show to monitor conditions," Degnan said. "We don't know why they were going on at that time."
Walker International Events said on its website it had canceled a performance Tuesday night in Bradford, Vermont. Circus officials did not respond to a call for comment.
One Lancaster resident questioned the logic of going on with the show in the face of the severe weather forecast.
"We haven't been to the fair in years, but we won't go back," said Gordon Armstrong.
Seventeen-year-old Gage Charron was more forgiving.
"It was a freak accident," Charron said.
"This is incredibly heartbreaking news," said Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin in a statement. "As the father of two daughters I can’t imagine the pain and grief that this tragedy has caused the family, friends, and loved ones of these two Vermonters."
(Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Bill Trott and Eric Walsh)
