‘Thought I was going to die’: Concertgoers describe chaos after 8 dead in attendance at the Travis Scott festival
Cry. Suffocating. Panic. Unconscious.
Concertgoers at a much-anticipated music festival in Houston on Friday night say they were shocked to see how the event developed into a pandemonium which left at least eight people dead.
Rapper Travis Scott was the headliner for the sold-out Astroworld Festival in NRG Park, which was attended by an estimated 50,000 people.
Here are some of them describe the chaos they are still trying to understand.
___
Ariel Little from New York was in the middle of the crowd at a first-class spectator spot with her husband for just a short minute before she started fighting.
It was in an attempt to escape the increasingly crowded place that the couple realized how dangerous it was becoming.
Little’s voice trembled with emotion as she described how small she felt by gasping for air as she was hit by the crowd.
“My chest has so much pain from people pushing and crushing – literally crushing – my chest and in my lungs. And all I can remember is just screaming for him. ‘I have to go out! I’m going out! ‘ And people did not move, “Little said.” They thought it was a joke, but it was as if people were literally dying. “
Her husband, Shawn, quickly explored the scene to find a way out.
“There were a lot of people in my ward who were a bit like screaming and having panic attacks just because it almost felt like you were under an elevator and the elevator came down on you and there was nothing you could do about it. that, “said Shawn Little. “No one in my department moved at the time because I think everyone was just in shock at how crazy and panicky everyone was. There was a lot of fear in people’s eyes.”
___
Madeline Eskins is an intensive care unit nurse who said she was one of the festival goers who fainted as the crowd of people pushed themselves closer to the stage. She was taken to a slightly less crowded area for medical attention, where she woke up.
Eskins, 23, of Houston, said she saw someone nearby who needed medical attention and she told them she was a nurse. When a security guard overheard her, he asked if she could start helping others, Eskins said.
“There were three people on earth who got CPR and the most disorganized chaos I have ever seen in my life,” Eskins said.
Eskins said she tried to guide medical staff and volunteers in how to use a defibrillator, and she also helped check for pulses and make CPR compressions on multiple people.
___
“When the main artist came out – like Travis – people were kind of compressed because they just wanted to see him,” Sal Salinas said. “It was like you were suffocated in there. If you weren’t on the side or something, you were about to be suffocated.”
___
Niaara Goods, 28, of New York, said audiences rose as one hour clicked down to the start of the show.
“As soon as he jumped out on stage, it was as if an energy took over and everything came to a standstill. All of a sudden, your ribs get crushed. You have someone’s arm in your neck. You try to breathe, but you can not, ”said Goods, who traveled to Texas to see friends and celebrate a birthday.
She said she and her friends, one of whom was hit in the head and jaw, were quickly separated from each other, but all escaped. Goods said she was so desperate to get out that she bit a man in the shoulder to make him move.
“Some people laugh at us – those who scream to get out. Because they thought it was funny. They did not realize it was terror,” she said.
Later, after coming to safety, she saw the wounded streams in safety in stretchers or in wheelchairs.
“It was literally the scariest night of my life. I literally thought I was going to die by trying to get out. It’s just not what you pay for, ”she said.
___
Gary Gaston, 52, of Houston, said he went to the concert with his ex-wife, their 14-year-old son and the teenager’s friend.
They felt so threatened after only a few of Scott’s songs that they decided to leave and meet outside at the doctor’s tent.
When Gaston and his ex-wife arrived shortly after noon.
“It was surreal because you see these people being pulled out on these stretchers and people running into the medical tent, but the music is still going on,” Gaston said. “People in the arena were not aware of it.”
___
Gavyn Flores said people kept trying to run into rooms where there was no one left, while others tried to walk towards the barricades to jump over to safety.
“They could not get there because there were people who liked to block them, so the people like them, just had to deal with it, like because they could not get out of the show,” Flores said. “They were like shouting ‘Stop the show!’ and there was a guy behind it who got CPR. So many people got CPR as if it was absurd. “
___
Julian Ponce said there were signs of injuries, but he was not aware of any deaths until he returned home.
“It was kind of mind-numbing, like we kept hearing people say, ‘Stop the show. Stop the show,’ but we did not know what was going on. We heard someone bleeding. We heard a lot of things, and we were not so sure, “said Ponce.” I do not even know how to feel. It’s just breathtaking. ”
.
No comments: