Clinton Elks collapse kills leader

~ Tony Komer was alone on the third floor when it gave way Monday night.

CLINTON, Mo. -- Before the ceiling opened above him, before he was covered in a torrent of bricks and debris and became a victim of tragedy, Tony Komer stood alone.

So often, those who knew him said, the 32-year-old leader of the Elks Club here distinguished himself as a loving family man, a generous friend and a devoted brother to the men who called the century-old lodge a second home.

"He was always fun," said Jeff Stone, another Elks member. "You'd laugh and you'd have a great time if you were with Tony."

Komer was the only casualty recorded Tuesday as rescuers combed the wreckage of the three-story brick building that housed the Elks lodge and partially collapsed as they gathered Monday evening. About 50 others -- including nine who were trapped for hours -- made it out alive.

As workers whittled away at the building's shell and removed Komer's body Tuesday afternoon, an American flag -- on a pole that the Elks put up -- waved at half-staff in the adjacent square. Residents and lodge members alike turned out by the hundreds, expressing thanks that nearly everyone escaped but shedding tears for the one who did not.

"We could have had massive deaths," said Don Eaton, one of the nine trapped men. "But the one is bad enough."

Floor 'just falling away'

Lodge members had just finished a dinner of pork tenderloin and salad when they heard a snap. Within seconds, the third level collapsed into the second.

"I looked over," said Elks member Jim Glasscock, "and a whole section of the floor was just falling away."

Most were able to make it down a staircase, but Komer had gone alone to the third floor to recite a passage he was to deliver at an initiation ceremony for new members, due to begin in about 30 minutes, at 8 p.m. He was never heard from again. A message left for family on his home answering machine Tuesday was not returned.

The other nine trapped men were in a small opening among the debris. They contacted emergency officials by cell phone, huddled together and prayed. As debris fell and the rubble shifted, it felt like aftershocks and they feared they'd never emerge alive.

"At one point, the nine people called 911 on their cell phone and said, 'We feel the rubble shifting. Please tell the workers to pray for us,'"' said Clinton Police Lt. Sonny Lynch. "I think a lot of people did."

It took five hours before the first man was rescued, and another five hours passed before the last man emerged. Rescue workers had to tunnel in through a neighboring building, crawling through openings on their bellies. They used ropes and harnesses to hoist many of the men from the rubble.

"They were happy to see us, but at the same time, they wanted out," said Robb Watkins, a rescue specialist with Missouri Task Force One who helped pull survivors from the building. "They would have been happy to have seen anyone."

Seven of the trapped men were able to walk away from the building without assistance; the other two were taken on stretchers. At least four were still hospitalized Tuesday afternoon, though injuries appeared to be no more severe than gashes and broken bones.

Authorities said the building had been renovated in recent years and there was no immediate indication why it gave way. Structural engineers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology were being dispatched from Maryland to examine the collapse site.

Hundreds of emergency officials turned out to help with the rescue effort at the lodge, which was upstairs from a men's clothing store, sandwiched between a law firm and a pharmacy in Clinton's downtown of low-rise buildings and quaint storefronts about 80 miles southeast of Kansas City.

The Elks are celebrating 100 years in Clinton -- all of them spent in the same building -- and are active organizing social events and charity drives and putting up flagpoles. Some 640 men in this town of about 9,500 people are members.

Many of them stared at the building, looking at its twisted innards and watching workers chip away at the jagged facade. And they remembered their leader -- a brother, a jokester, a father, a friend.

Said Stone, "That was our place."