The Story of the Hyatt Hotel Disaster

Hundreds of people danced underneath the sky walks, and a few dozen more came to stand on them. The first responders were weeping in frustration as they tried to pry up the huge concrete slabs. People underneath were begging for help, but the standard rescue equipment was all but useless. At two o'clock in the morning, a man, a woman, and a boy were pulled alive from an air pocket under the wreckage. Dawn had broken when the cranes lifted the final fallen section of Skywalk. For some of the rescuers, it was the moment when the long struggle became too much to bear. There were thirty-one people underneath. Every single one of them was dead.