Water tank bursts at Atlanta Boat Show

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It was a good day for a boat at the Atlanta Boat Show after a 100,000-gallon water tank ruptured Thursday morning at the Georgia World Congress Center.

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John Spink, jspink@ajc.com Workers pump water out of the full tank after a second one collapsed.

Enlarge photo

John Spink, jspink@ajc.com A water tank burst shortly before the Atlanta Boat Show was supposed to start Thursday at the Georgia World Congress Center. Crews rushed to clean the area, and the opening was delayed.

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The Indoor Wake Park attraction flooded one of the exhibit floors around 9:30 a.m., forcing organizers to delay the show's opening until 3 p.m., a spokeswoman for the boat show said. The wave park was supposed to be debuted at this weekend's show.

The show had been scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.

No one was injured -- and no boats were damaged -- when one of the attraction's two pools spilled about 70,000 gallons of water, according to Larry Berryman, the boat show manager. Some professional wake boarders were practicing at the time, Berryman said.

Show officials have not determined what caused part of the attraction to collapse. It wasn't immediately known if the wake park would be available for the remainder of the show, which runs through Sunday.

But event organizers insisted the show will go on.

“Starting at 3 p.m., the show will open as planned, celebrating 50 years of bringing the best in boating to Atlanta,” Berryman said in a statement.

Called the largest indoor wake park in the county on the boat show's website, the attraction was scheduled to be the site of performances by professional wave riders.

A spokesman for the GWCC told the AJC that drains in the floor helped with cleanup Thursday morning.

"Quite a bit of the water is already gone," Mike Geiger told the AJC shortly before noon.

Please return for updates.

- Photographer John Spink contributed to this report.