After tornado kills 6 at Amazon, governor says climate change may force building code changes
EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois - Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday that the deadly tornado that killed six people at an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville might be a sign that building codes should be changed.
"People have said they were built to code. If they were, then we need to look — and I've talked with legislators about this — we need to look at whether the code needs to be strengthened," Pritzker said.
The governor visited the site where the six workers were killed; a seventh is still hospitalized with many surgeries ahead. Most of the Amazon workers at the location survived in a shelter; those who were killed and injured were all huddled "in the only structure they had on that side of the building," Pritkzer said.
"We're all quite well aware that storms are getting more severe, that climate change is affecting businesses and homes and individuals all across the nation – not to mention here in Illinois – and if we need to strengthen those codes because of climate change, we should go do that," Pritkzer said. "We're relying upon not only the local investigation and the OSHA investigation to look at issues around whether there are structural challenges with the way those warehouses and that particular one was built."
The same tornado outbreak killed dozens of other people in four other states, including several people at a candle factory in Kentucky.