Posted on 12/12/2010 6:25:36 AM PST by raccoonradio
St. Paul, Minn. — The snowstorm that dumped more than 20 inches of snow on parts of Minnesota brought down the roof of the Metrodome on Sunday morning.
Witnesses, including the security director at the nearby Holiday Inn Metrodome, said the roof is no longer visible above the dome's concrete bowl.
"We went up to the 14th floor to look at it. It looks kind of like a big dish of sugar," the director, Chris Cowles, said.
Sunday's Vikings game against the New York Giants had already been rescheduled for Monday night.
Officials from the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission could not immediately be reached for comment. On Saturday, facilities and engineering director Steve Maki told the Star Tribune there was no structural issue occurring at the dome from the snow.
Maki told the newspaper crews had planned to go back up on the dome's roof Sunday morning to remove snow.
If the dome did collapse from Saturday's storm, it'd be the first time since the 1980s that that's happened.
TIME TO DIG OUT
The giant winter storm had moved out of Minnesota by Sunday morning, but dangerous wind chills moved in to replace it. The National Weather Service issued a wind chill advisory for a large swath of the state, including the Twin Cities and Duluth. A blizzard warning remained in effect for southeastern Minnesota.
Minnesotans, many of whom were forced to stay home Saturday because of snow-clogged streets and no public transportation, are digging out.
Snow totals reached 20 inches in some places. Shakopee received the most snow with 21.5 inches. Everywhere else in the Twin Cities area received at least 10 inches.
Perhaps the league could play the game at the University of Minnesota. The Saints moved some of thier home games to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge in 2005.
Some of my fondest football memories is sitting in a rickety old stadium with a wind chill of -40 degrees watching the New England Patriots play the Chicago Bears and having to drink my Coke fast or else it would freeze into a block of ice. Now that's football the way it was meant to be.
Damn, I wish I could be at Soldier's Field this afternoon...
According to a weather guy I heard a while ago, because it's normally pretty dry up there :)
Should a dome in Minnesota be constructed to withstand the weight of 20 inches of snow?
So when the snow melts, the roof could go back ‘up’ by itself. ???
It was canceled sometime yesterday because the airport shut down and the Gi’nts couldn’t make it into town.
Nothing of the sort. The roof is inflatable, held up with air pressure. They clear the snow, re-inflate it and play on.
THEY NAMED IT AFTER HHH??? in 2009???
what a bunch of morons...
chilly LOL
Thx - you’re fast;)
Can you say “L.A. Vikings”.
Football was never meant to be played indoors........Didn’t your mother ever tell you to “take that football outside”...?
Not until they can rehab the Rose Bowl or L.A. Coliseum, acc. to Wikipedia...Plus: The NFL wants the L.A. market. Minus:
Many in L.A. prob. could care less. The Raiders and
Rams fled town (Chargers played ‘60 in L.A. but moved to S.D.)
But who knows.
It was interesting some years back when the New England Patriots, who have since won three Super Bowls, were possibly moving to places like St. Louis (one owner was part of the Busch family) or Memphis but Bob Kraft bought team and kept
them in N.E./Foxboro MA
Shakopee was the site of one of the last wooden roller coasters. I rode it in the early 70’s.
I don’t know if it was still there before this storm.
Is it? Gone already?
or build a new stadium
Before picture of white fabric roof.
Union made?
No, stupid engineers building on the cheap. Anyone who lives in a snowy area knows that open span flat roofs tend to collapse when they get heavy snow loads. You need them to be steep enough for the snow to slide off. Whoever mentioned "chalet" roof is correct.
The roof weighs 300 tons and I imagine there was about 2000 tons of snow on the flat part of the roof.
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