CAPE TEEN CLOSE TO DECK COLLAPSE; 100 GRATEFUL DEAD FANS HURT SEEKING SHELTER

WENTZVILLE -- Jamie Talley was cold and wet and looking for refuge from the rain during the huge party Wednesday that followed his first Grateful Dead concert.

Talley, who lives in Cape Girardeau, stood beneath a tent and watched a wooden deck collapse, injuring more than 100 Grateful Dead fans at a campground west of St. Louis. Chaos followed as people tried to remove debris and rescue wounded people.

"I didn't know what to do," he said. "There were so many people hurt. I just froze." Moments later Talley realized he was standing alone under the tent witnessing the scene of confusion. People were running around, screaming and soaking wet.

The experience hasn't dampened the 18-year-old's enthusiasm for the rock 'n' roll band. He was headed back to St. Louis Thursday night to give the Grateful Dead another try.

On Wednesday, Talley said it took a few moments for the seriousness of the accident to sink in. "I just snapped back and started to help."

Earlier Wednesday, Talley and several friends were among about 20,000 people attending the sold-out concert at Riverport Amphitheater in suburban St. Louis.

About 4,000 fans -- known as Deadheads -- have taken up residence at the Pinewoods campground about 40 miles west of St. Louis. Many fans follow the band on its tours around the country.

"We went to the farm where everyone was going after the concert was over," he said. "We were out walking around looking at the vending stations when it started to rain."

A fellow Deadhead offered a ride in the back of a pickup truck. But after a short while, Talley got too cold and jumped out of the truck to seek refuge under the tent about 30 yards away from the ill-fated deck. That was about 11:30 p.m. He didn't find his friends again until nearly 4 a.m.

The roof above the deck collapsed first, falling on top of fans seeking shelter from the downpour. The deck then crashed to the ground, injuring others underneath it.

The fans were dancing or jumping on the upper level of the deck when it collapsed, Talley said.

The deck crushed down nearly intact, and the deck timbers were huge and heavy. "People were taking it apart piece by piece, great big pieces of 2-by-6s, trying to get to the people who were trapped," he said.

"You hear about that adrenalin rush where someone can have more power than is really possible, I saw that happen," Talley said.

A man, about the same size as Talley, picked up a corner of the pavilion by himself and pulled out two 18-year-old girls. "Later it took almost 200 people to lift that pavilion," he said.

Emergency vehicles had trouble getting to the scene because of the vast number of Deadheads on the campground.

"There were just thousands of people walking and they wouldn't get out of the way," he said. "We could hear the sirens but we couldn't see anything."

It was nearly an hour before police and ambulances maneuvered the three miles from the park's entrance to the accident scene.

"A lot of people were going nuts. They just went into hysteria," Talley said.

Talley said he tried to help the police direct fans away from the accident scene. "I knew they needed help, there were so many people and so few police. People just kept getting in the way, and it would have been better if they would have let the police do their jobs."

He helped for several hours then waited with the other "Deadheads" as the injured were taken to St. Louis hospitals.

The serious injuries included a broken neck and a severe head injury. There were also some broken arms and legs. Some of the less severely hurt were taken to hospitals by school bus.

"They pulled the last person out at 4:30 a.m.," Talley said. "It was non-stop chaos."

By Thursday morning, the scene at the campground was somber, and the flag at the campground's lodge had been lowered to half-staff. Some of the Deadheads carried flowers and burned incense. Signs around the camp proclaim "Wish them well" and "We will survive."

The party is scheduled to continue through Sunday.

Talley explained that the Deadheads who follow the band attract him as much as the band's music. "There is so much love," he said. "They don't ever judge you at first. It's like one big family. People call each other brother and sister. No one ever gets mad. There were thousands of people and I only heard of one fight."

Wednesday's accident was not the first misfortune to befall the band's followers recently.

Two fans were found dead at the campground Tuesday night and Wednesday from what may have been drug overdoses.

On Sunday, a Grateful Dead concert in Noblesville, Ind., was canceled after fans without tickets stormed a fence and threw rocks and bottles at police. About 220 officers in riot gear tried to quell the crowd with tear gas, pepper spray and police dogs.

And on June 25, three people were hospitalized in Washington after being struck by lightning while waiting outside RFK Stadium for a Grateful Dead-Bob Dylan concert to begin.

(Some information for this story was provided by the Associated Press.)

WITNESSED ACCIDENT

The roof above the deck collapsed first, falling on top of fans seeking shelter from the downpour.

The deck then crashed to the ground, injuring others underneath it.

The fans were dancing or jumping on the upper level of the deck when it collapsed.