EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Some workers at an Amazon warehouse here that partly collapsed during a tornado in December didn't remember participating in tornado drills, and others didn't know where to take cover in an emergency, according to a federal investigation released Tuesday.
In letters sent to Amazon and three contract employers, officials with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, outlined how workers were warned to take cover 10 minutes before a tornado touched down, ripping through the southern half of the building and killing six people.
But a megaphone, kept in the warehouse to prompt people to take shelter, was locked in a cage and not accessible that night. Instead, managers walked through the 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse and told people to take cover, according to the letter.
