Videos taken during an outdoor wedding at a Buckhead hotel provide new insight into the frightening moment a powerful storm ripped down the tent over the ceremony and caused it to collapse on dozens of guests, including two musicians and a woman in the third trimester of her pregnancy.
The woman and her husband and the two musicians have filed two separate lawsuits against the St. Regis Atlanta Hotel, the wedding’s event coordinator and the company that owned the awning that collapsed, accusing all three parties of negligence in the incident that left them injured early last year.
The videos, which were released to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by the attorney representing the couple, show the rain and wind pounding down on the massive clear-top tent under a darkened sky on Jan. 11, 2020. The tent was erected on the Grand Terrace of the hotel on West Paces Ferry Road.
On the day of the ceremony, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning, a wind advisory and a tornado watch for Fulton County that was effective until 9 p.m. The warning came ahead of a storm system with damaging winds that toppled trees and brought down power lines throughout the state.
“At the peak, over 150,000 customers across Georgia had lost electricity,” the NWS said in a statement following the storms. “Additionally, three weak tornadoes occurred within the line of storms in eastern Paulding and western Cobb counties, Fannin County and Upson County, downing more trees, several of which fell onto houses.”
Tara Guerard, who owns event company Soiree, spoke to the hotel’s security director about the severe weather ahead of the 7 p.m. wedding, and the parties decided to go forward with the outdoor event, according to the lawsuit filed by wedding musicians Amanda Crosby and Tiffany Ray. The lawsuit said the companies tried to rush through the wedding before the severe weather struck, “even as the skies darkened, the wind increased, and rain pounded on the tent.”
In a video taken during the ceremony, wedding guests can be heard remarking on the strength of the storm seconds before the supports at the top of the tent seem to give way. A second video shows the strong winds lifting the tent off the ground. Dozens of overlapping screams and cries for help are heard in all of the videos.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” one woman is heard shouting. “Oh, my God. We’ve got to go.”
Atlanta fire officials previously said “several guests” were injured during the incident. The exact number of injuries is not clear.
Attorney Michael Horst said his client, Teryn Eick, who was 32 weeks pregnant at the time, suffered pre-term labor contractions for more than a month after a tent beam fell and hit her. Teryn and her husband, James Eick, were guests at the wedding when the chaos unfolded, according to the civil complaint they filed in March.
“When the tent collapsed, the supporting beams fell and struck Plaintiff Teryn Eick, knocking her into a chair and pinning her to the ground,” the civil filing said.
Horst said Eick was taken to a hospital with bruises all over her arms and legs. She also began having contractions “around the clock” for 38 consecutive days, he said.
“She was ordered by her doctors to be on bed rest and take medication until the baby was born,” Horst told the AJC. “The medication and bed rest combined to slow Mrs. Eick’s contraction pain from every 3-4 minutes to every 30-45 minutes.”
Eick gave birth to a baby girl prematurely on Feb. 18.
Ray, a violinist who had been hired by Soiree to perform during the ceremony, had injuries to her body that totaled more than $20,000 in medical bills, according to the legal filing. Crosby, a fellow violinist, suffered injuries and property damage of more than $21,000.
“I’m a musician and I’ve played at some weddings and this really gets me fired up,” said attorney Michael Hoffer, who is representing the two women.
The couple who were being married that day are not named in either lawsuit.
“I am not aware of anything the couple did that would rise to the level of negligence,” Horst said.
However, the attorneys said the hotel and wedding planner compromised the safety of every guest attending the ceremony by failing to move the wedding inside after receiving numerous severe weather warnings. They said the company that owned the awning, Peachtree Tents and Events, is also liable for erecting a tent they knew was not suitable to be an outdoor shelter during a storm.
“The defendants collectively had prior knowledge and notice that severe and extreme weather would be affecting the area of Atlanta where the wedding was to take place and at the time the wedding was to take place,” the complaint filed by Ray and Crosby said. “Severe weather, including high winds and the risk of tornadoes, pose a foreseeable and avoidable risk to an outdoor wedding held under a tent seven stories above ground level.”
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