Weather blamed for scaffolding collapse

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WALA) - Officials said scaffolding being used to construct a water tank replacement collapsed on Pensacola Beach Thursday morning because of the heavy wind and rain.

“We were lucky, the community was lucky, and no one was hurt," said Jim Roberts, a spokesman for the Emerald Coast Utilities Agency.  "[There were] no injuries to report.”

A larger, concrete tank was going up to replace the old steel one.

“[It] would be better for the environment and better for hurricanes and storms like that," Roberts said.

Rain and high winds, which Roberts estimated at 60 miles per hour, were blamed for the failure. 

But anything built or being built near a large body of water needs to be constructed with high winds in mind, so FOX10 wanted to know how something like this could happen.

“It’s nature, just an act of God," Roberts said. "This is something you don’t plan for.”

FOX10 News wanted to know if the new scaffolding that will go up will be any different than before.

“I’m not in the construction company, so I don’t know," Roberts said. "That’s a construction company issue. The people that actually have the construction company building this. We assign the construction company. It’s not actually our project.”

Santa Rosa Island Authority Director Buck Lee doesn't understand how the accident could happen.

"You’re on Pensacola Beach. You’re on a place that when we have thunderstorms come through, there isn’t much to block the wind, and things do topple over," Lee said. "I just hope that their contractor, when they come back and start doing it again. It’ll be able to withstand a little more wind than what we had here.”

That contractor is Crom Construction out of Gainesville. FOX10 News reached out to them to ask several questions about the project, but we haven’t heard back.

According to Roberts, no one on the beach went without water because of the collapse, and residents were getting adequate pressure.

ECUA will have someone on-site 24 hours to watch over the project.