The Latest: 2nd crane in danger of collapse
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Latest on the collapse of a hotel under construction in New Orleans (all times local):
4:45 p.m.
The second of two cranes towering over the site where a New Orleans hotel construction project partially collapsed two days ago is now considered in danger of toppling.
One of the cranes had been considered in danger of collapse since Saturday's disaster. But New Orleans Fire Chief Tim McConnell said Monday that inspections reveal the second crane is also unstable.
The discovery led city officials to slightly expand an evacuation area around the building, which is also considered dangerously unstable. It complicates efforts by engineers to determine how to stabilize the cranes and the building.
Rescue crews have been in the building throughout the day, hoping to find the lone missing worker alive. But, McConnell says, parts of the building remain inaccessible.
Two other workers are known dead at the project site, which sits on the edge of the historic French Quarter.
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2:30 p.m.
The coroner's office in New Orleans has identified one of two workers known to have died when a hotel under construction partially collapsed.
He was 49-year-old Anthony Floyd Magrette. His body was removed from the wreckage Sunday and his identity was confirmed by the coroner Monday. New Orleans news outlets report his wife and family had kept a vigil at the site in downtown New Orleans until the body was removed.
Efforts to retrieve another body and find the missing worker continued Monday in the dangerously unstable building at the edge of the French Quarter.
Experts also are making plans to stabilize and move a huge crane at the site.
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10 a.m.
Rescue workers and search dogs are gingerly moving through a dangerously unstable building in New Orleans that partially collapsed over the weekend.
They were looking Monday for the only person still unaccounted for following Saturday's disaster at a hotel under construction at the edge of the French Quarter. Two people died in the collapse. More than 20 were hurt. Mayor LaToya Cantrell says one remains hospitalized.
Fire Chief Tim McConnell says engineers are in the structure to looking for ways to stabilize it. A huge crane at the site also must be stabilized.
Two major thoroughfares near the French Quarter and the main business district remain closed.
The cause of the collapse is under investigation. Officials said the last inspection of record at the site was Sept. 24.
