For Eastern Michigan University students Megan Trapp and Rachel Washburn, Sunday started as a normal day of work at EMU’s Indoor Practice Facility.
Trapp, a former EMU soccer player, and Washburn, a current defender for the team, arrived at 6 a.m. and worked the front desk while high-school age club soccer games were taking place inside the complex.
Then, around 8:30 a.m., a parent approached them worried about a noise.
“They heard some type of pop,” Trapp said. “Immediately I knew we had to call our boss.”
They proceeded to walk around the complex to see where the noise was coming from. Trapp was around the 30-yard line and Washburn was near the exit when they heard a louder noise.
“It was loud,” Washburn said. “It shook the whole building.”
At that point, everyone in the complex headed for the exit knowing something was wrong. Trapp went looking around the facility to try and pinpoint the location of the noise. Washburn, referees and coaches proceeded to help move people out of the complex through the emergency exit.
The source of the noise was a tear in the facility's exterior.
“[The rip] was a couple inches,” Trapp said. “It wasn’t anything big and I didn’t think anything of it. I took a picture of where [the rip] started from and before I could do anything with it, the seams immediately ripped and essentially [the roof] ripped in half from east to west.”
As the rip became larger, Trapp headed out of the opening and made her way around the complex to help Washburn and the referees continue to funnel people out. They were able to get everyone out safely before the entire complex collapsed.
“It was crazy how fast it fell,” Washburn said. Trapp and Washburn both agreed that the time between the initial noise and the actual collapse was around three minutes.
Officials have not determined the cause for the collapse.
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