The Aichigan Daily-Saturday, July 18, 1981-Page 3
BALCONY COLLAPSES AMID DANCERS
Disaster at hotel ballroom
From AP and UPI
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Three "sky
bridges" in an enclosed courtyard at
the Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed onto
a ballroom full of dancers last night,
killing at least 43 and injuring about
100, police said.
As the first of the bodies were pulled
from a tangle of twisted girders and
broken glass, officials designated one
room of the lavish midtown hotel as a
temporary morgue.
POLICE CHIEF Norman Caron said
injured who could walk were being
placed on a city bus to be taken to a
hospital.
Officials said rescue efforts were
hampered by natural gas leaks and
were working to shut off the leaks to
eliminate the chance of explosion in the
40-story building.
Harold Knabe, a spokesman for the
Kansas City Fire Department, said
part of the lobby in the west side of the
building also had collapsed. He said
equipment, including cranes, was
brought in to help people who were
trapped by the collapsing walkways.
THE WALKWAYS are stacked one
over another at different levels inside
the lobby of the hotel, which is several
stories high. Police said one of the
walkways fell and knocked down the
others, which criss-crossed beneath.
The ballroom under the walkways,
called "sky bridges" by the hotel, was
crowded with dancers at a "Tea Dan-
ce," which has become a Friday night
fixture at the latest luxury hotel to open
in Kansas City.
A hotel staff member estimated at
least 1,500 people were in the area when
the collapse occurred.
MORE THAN 40 emergency vehicles
from around the metropolitan area
hurried to the scene, and several of the
injured were evacuated by helicopter.
As rescuers moved through the
AP Photo
THREE ELEVATED WALKWAYS in the enclosed courtyard of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City collapsed
yesterday on a ballroom full of dancers, killing or injuring hundreds.
wreckage, the injured awaiting
evacuation were comforted by friends.
Uninjured people waited outside the
building for word of the missing.
"There's quite a few fatalities," said
fire department spokesman Harold
Knobe.
"THAT WHOLE thing just collapsed.
We don't know how many people are
under it."
Knobe estimated 500 people were on
the two balconies and the main lobby
floor when the concrete structures
collapsed about 7:30 p.m. CDT, pulling
down a chunk of the hotel with it.
Dozens of injured people dressed in
evening attire lay on the ground outside
the posh downtown hotel. Some wan-
dered bleeding and dazed. -
THE LOBBY floor was jammed with
people attending a tea dance, a popular
Big Band event that is held each Friday
at the Hyatt: The dancing had just en-
ded at the time of the collapse.
Authorities hauled in a variety of ex-
trication equipment, including cranes,
to aid in pulling out trapped victims.
The smell of gas permeated the air in
the damaged hotel, hampering rescue
efforts. Officians were taking extra
precautions not to create any sparks
that could possibly ignite an explosion.
A TRIP TO THE EYE OF AGAMOTTO
Probing the comic book frontier
By ANDREW CHAPMAN
Daily staff writer
"The X-men." "The Hands of Shang Chi." "Kona:
Monarch of Monster Isle." "Matt Fury."
Yes, comic book fans, this really is the final fron-
tier. There is refuge in Ann Arbor for die-hard collec-
tors.
THE EYE OF Agamotto (the name comes from Dr.
Strange's mystical amulet), located above Tice's on
South State Street, is the only comic book store in Ann
Arbor, and has been since it opened for business in
1973.
"We sell anything that is fantasy, and fantasy is
just about anything," said owner and manager Norm
Harris.
'Basically we sell comic books," Harris said, "but
the word comic book sometimes conjures up a
negative image; you can call it sequential panel story
tellfng."
THE WALLS OF the Eye of Agamotto are lined
with comic books-some from as long ago as the
1940s, others as recent as last week. For those more
intepested in the popular heroes, there are "Super-
man," "'Spiderman,"'or "the Lone Ranger." For the
more eccentric tastes, there's "Hansi: The Girl Who
Loved the Swastika," or a series on "Superman's
Pal: Jimmy Olsen." ' s
"You can't really stereotype the comic book
reader," Harris said. "I've seen all types in
here-doctors, lawyers, students. They come in
waves. In the summer I get more high school kids.
During the school year it's mostly University studen-
ts."
Barbara Niemeyer, a high school senior, browsed
through the latest edition of "Elfquest." "I've been
collecting comics for the past year and a half, but all I
really like is Elfquest. It's the best thing they stock,"
she said. (Elfquest is a fantasy comic roughly based
on Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
THE PRICES range from a quarter to $50 an issue,
depending on the age, condition, popularity and
rarity of the comic book.
"I've seen people come in here and drop $300 in one
shot, but that's rare, Harris said. "Most people just
browse and buy a comic or two."
Harris opened the store after he graduated from
the University. "I read comics all through college,"
he said. "My grades got better after I started reading
them seriously."
Harris claims the student population hasn't really
changed much in the time he's been here. "There's
been a change in the faces, but not in the attitudes,"
he said.
"SOME PEOPLE come in to look at things for their
nostalgia aspect, but it's mostly the contemporary
stuff that sells the best," Harris said.
See COMIC, Page 4
Doily Photo by JACKIE BELL
NORM HARRIS, owner of the Eye of Agamotto,
said he has seen some people come into his comic
book store and "drop $300 in one shot."