Clearer pictures began to emerge Sunday of some of the eight people who died after fans at the Astroworld music festival in Houston suddenly surged toward the stage during a performance by rapper Travis Scott.
Authorities said Sunday they wouldn’t release the names of the dead, but family members and friends shared accounts of their loved ones with journalists and through social media.
The dead ranged from 14 to 27 years old, according to Houston officials. As of Sunday, 13 people remained hospitalized.
City officials said they were in the early stages of investigating what caused the pandemonium at the sold-out event founded by Scott. About 50,000 people were there.
Experts who have studied deaths caused by crowd surges say they are often a result of density – too many people packed into a small space. The crowd is often either running away from a perceived threat or toward something, such as a performer, before hitting a barrier.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation installed 12 highway signs in northeastern Minnesota.
The signs, more than a decade in the making, mark the boundaries of a treaty signed in 1854 by the federal government and three Ojibwe tribes — the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
The Grand Portage tribe initially asked for signs recognizing the treaty boundaries 11 years ago, said Levi Brown, director of tribal affairs for MnDOT. The Bois Forte and Fond du Lac bands followed with their own formal requests.
The Bois Forte, Grand Portage and Fond du Lac Ojibwe bands ceded 5.5 million acres of land in northeastern Minnesota to the U.S. government in 1854.
In exchange, through the treaty, the tribes were given small cash payments and guaranteed the right to continue to hunt, fish and gather on that ceded territory.
The additional 11 signs will be placed along other highways, including Interstate 35 near Sturgeon Lake, over the next several weeks.
St. Thomas announced the official name and groundbreaking date for its STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) complex in a Newsroom email to the St. Thomas community on Thursday, November 4, nearly two years after it introduced the project.
Construction for the complex, which will be named the Schoenecker Center after the late Guy and Barbara Schoenecker, will begin May 2022 on St. Thomas’ South Campus in St. Paul is predicted to finish for a spring 2024 debut, the email said.
The over 130,000-square-foot, five-level building will adjoin O’Shaughnessy Science Hall to house arts, engineering and science departments for a “collaborative, interdisciplinary education.”
The center will also reach beyond St. Thomas students, faculty and staff to provide spaces for local K-12 schools and organizations.
Sumaii Gemechu can be reached at sgemechu@stthomas.edu.