A partial roof collapse sent metal and water crashing into a BJ's Wholesale Club in Ocean Township, New Jersey, during the weekend's punishing rain, in a frightening scene that unfolded while shoppers were inside the store.
The collapse happened at the BJ's Wholesale Club at 1904 Route 35 in Ocean Township. Authorities said the intense rain is being blamed for the failure, which brought down roughly 20 percent of the roof at the rear of the building.
As the roof gave way, all that metal and water came rushing into the store. Video of the scene showed one shopper being pushed across the front of the store by the surge of water as it swept through, carrying him past a table before he could get clear.
The first calls for help painted an alarming picture. Emergency radio traffic captured on Broadcastify included requests for more ambulances to BJ's, reports of multiple patients, and mutual aid calls describing a structural collapse with multiple injuries and multiple entrapments.
Crews responded quickly, and an urban search and rescue team was ready to head inside to perform a secondary search of the building. Despite those initial reports, fire and police officials said that as of now nobody was injured in the collapse, and that everyone inside was accounted for.
Officials noted that the collapse was confined to the rear of the building, where roughly a fifth of the roof came down. A massive hole was left in the roof, and authorities said it would take a while to repair the extensive damage.
The collapse was among the more dramatic examples of damage from the storms that battered the region over the holiday weekend, as heavy rain and high winds brought down trees, knocked out power and left cleanup crews with plenty of work across the area.