VIDEO purports to show structural flaws at Hard Rock Hotel construction site days before deadly collapse

There may have been warning signs days before the deadly collapse at the Hard Rock Hotel construction site in New Orleans. A video purportedly shot by a worker shows a temporary beam bending under the weight of higher levels.

The accident at the site killed two people and left dozens injured. One person remains unaccounted for and is presumed dead. Police are examining the evidence related to the collapse, including the video, which was shared by a contractor on Tuesday.

The short clip shows a construction site with visibly bent temporary beams stretching between the floor and ceiling. The person filming it can be heard saying in Spanish: “They are going to break… The structure is s**t. What they did here, the architects and engineers, it’s serious, papa.”

The clip was published by Randy Gaspard, a concrete contractor not involved in the Hard Rock Hotel project, on Facebook. He told the Daily Advertiser, a Louisiana newspaper, he received the video from site workers, but would not identify them by name.

“The guys were on the job, they thought something was wrong,” he said. “I’m not making an opinion on it, I’m just explaining what the guys were complaining about right there.”

The authenticity of the video could not be immediately verified by anyone, including site contractor Citadel Builders. A spokesman for the company said if the workers behind the video were concerned about their safety, they would have run instead of “laughing and making jokes.”

Walter Zehner, who once consulted on the project before it became a planned Hard Rock Hotel, told the newspaper the video didn’t necessarily show the cause of the collapse.

“Those were temporary anyway. They’re not part of the structure,” he said. “There was deflection in the post shores, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what caused the building to collapse, not in the least.”

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!