The roof of the Algo Mall, a shopping centre, collapsed on Saturday, June 23rd 2012, killing at least one person, injuring more than 20 people and leaving several missing.
The 30 year old mall houses the city’s public library, grocery and other stores, and various government offices. The collapsed section of the mall used to be a rooftop parking lot.
As the story evolves, evidence and anecdotes of continuous problems related to the roof’s mall are being reported. These include recurring leaks, structural fractures and other deficiencies. There are also reports that the mall has been undergoing repairs, and that the mall owner spent approximately $1.1M just to fix roof leaks, but that none of these were major structural fixes.
While more will emerge on this story, the current focus is on emergency response and recovery. There will undoubtedly be one or more reviews later.
The event will certainly leave a scar on the small community, and inflict trauma and costs in many directions for a long time.
It is clear that even if the risk of a roof breakdown was identified in advance, the impact was not. Risks must be analyzed and well understood to their full impact and likelihood in order to take the right measures. Then specifically, extreme impact risks, even unlikely ones, must get the appropriate and immediate attention and to prevent avoidable catastrophes.