Kilroy’s is a bar that until Saturday many of you didn’t know the name of.
Sure, it’s the second closest bar to Busch Stadium. And sure, you’ve probably had a drink there before. But it wasn’t a Paddy O’s or Shannon’s where the mere mention of its name would let people get an exact visual of where you were.
Kilroy’s = place with beer; pretty close to baseball stadium. That’s it. No more, no less.
Just like any small business trying to maximize profits during the baseball season and compete with their neighbors, Kilroy’s erected a tent. They almost doubled the amount of people they could hold under cover. And when those pesky rain delays came and went over the summer, they’d experience a nice little uptick of people looking to drink out a shower.
Then a fucking massive thunderstorm blew the tent into the Highway 40 overpass, killed one man and injured upwards of 100 people.
The handwringing has begun.
This week St. Louis’ Public Safety Director has moved to re-write evacuation policy for public tents during severe weather. LINK HERE
Read that again. The St. Louis Public Safety Director has to re-write the evacuation policy for public tents during severe weather. Why does he have to do this? Because in 2012 we can’t just call a spade a spade: It’s not smart to stand under a tent when a tornado siren is going off.
Kilroy’s put up a tent and the tent, by all reports, met the city’s regulations for being secured. Unfortunately a severe weather cell hit that particular tent, but it doesn’t change the fact that not a single person under that tent should have been in that tent.
Besides, what is the enforcement here? During a tornado siren do we expect police officers to be dispatched to possible violators? Perhaps they’ll stop by after the storm passes… but then aren’t then people just hanging out? Maybe we can have a bunch of court cases where they bring witnesses in to testify about what times they were in the tent during severe weather and have Bree Smith sign and affidavit swearing to what exact times the storms were in the area! That’ll give the underworked judicial system something productive to do…
It truly sucks that people were hurt during this storm and it really sucks that one person had to lose his life. But any new laws or lawsuits filed are frivolous and a waste of time and money.
Bad choices and bad luck contributed to a very unfortunate situation. Hopefully many people learned a lesson in taking severe weather seriously. Any action taken beyond a remembrance is too much.
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