Crane Collapse at Florida Hospital Site: What Businesses Need to Know About Severe Weather Risks and How AccuWeather Can Help You Better Prepare
This event highlights the unique vulnerabilities of certain industries, like construction, logistics, and outdoor event management, to weather threats that may not trigger public alerts.
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AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter says sudden wind gusts up to 55 mph likely triggered the Florida crane collapse. Shifting wind direction may have added to the danger.
On May 28, 2025, at a hospital construction site in Hialeah, Florida, a tragic incident claimed the lives of two workers and left several others injured. A crane collapsed around the same time as sudden, intense wind gusts from nearby thunderstorms, bringing a day of routine work to a devastating end. The AccuWeather report recounts the contributed to the accident, underscoring the very real danger that severe weather poses—not only to property and schedules, but importantly to human lives.
As we reflect on the lives lost and the families affected, businesses should also ask how they can reduce the risks for this type of tragedy in the future. More advance notice and more accurate information can make a difference in saving lives, seconds count.
What Happened?
According to AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter, a full investigation will be required to understand what caused the incident, but based on preliminary reports from the scene, gusty winds may have played a significant role in the accident.
Rapidly increasing winds associated with a nearby thunderstorm generated wind gusts of 45-55 mph in the area near the time of the collapse.
Also, the direction from which the wind was blowing may have abruptly shifted, which can create risks for equipment like cranes, especially when coupled with sudden bursts of wind.
This wind speed is not high enough for the government’s National Weather Service (NWS) to issue a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the public, but it can be very dangerous for some business operations, such as construction and crane operators, also concert venues and other outdoor entertainment.
Thunderstorm-related winds are a major risk to outdoor operations and have been involved in some major disasters—the Indiana State Fair stage collapse and last year’s stage collapse in Mexico, just to name a few. Often, wind gusts arrive before rain or even lightning, and they can catch people unprepared off guard, leading to senseless tragedy.
This is why every business needs the umbrella of protection provided by AccuWeather. It has repeatedly shown to provide more accurate forecasts, more advance notice, and better descriptions, helping companies enhance safety and reduce risk and liability.
This event highlights the unique vulnerabilities of certain industries, like construction, logistics, and outdoor event management, to weather threats that may not trigger public alerts.
Why Businesses Need AccuWeather SkyGuard® Severe Weather Warnings
Standard public weather warnings are designed for the general public, not for the specific needs of businesses or high-risk operations. That is where AccuWeather’s SkyGuard® Severe Weather Warnings make the difference:
• Hyperlocal, Location-Specific Warnings: AccuWeather's SkyGuard® Severe Weather Warnings are tailored to your exact location and operational thresholds, providing the most accurate and often more advance notice of impending threats—whether high winds, lightning, flooding or other hazards.
• Often More Advance, More Detailed Notifications: AccuWeather’s expert meteorologists issue warnings ahead of other sources, giving businesses more time to act and better prepare. For example, AccuWeather Expert Storm Warning meteorologists issued a lifesaving SkyGuard® Tornado Warning, which exclusively provided 23 minutes of advance notice BEFORE the brief tornado struck near a sports complex of a professional football team and a professional baseball team in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 3, 2025. The NWS and all other known sources provided ONLY 1 minute of advance notice.
• Expert Consultation and 24x7x365 Monitoring: AccuWeather provides you with expert meteorologists for immediate, live consultations to help you make the best decisions, faster, when seconds count, and when it matters most. AccuWeather gives you more time to better prepare and protect your locations, keep your employees safer, save you money, and better protect your reputation.
>> Learn more about AccuWeather’s Proven Superior AccuracyTM
For companies in business today, Porter advises that weather must be a factor in your contingency planning. Meteorological experts who specialize in serving companies and public venues, such as AccuWeather, which provides forecasts and warnings with Superior Accuracy™, can help clarify the severe weather risks that impact businesses and help them develop a safety plan that evaluates all potential impacts specifically tailored to their people, their business and their location.
Once businesses have such a plan, they must ensure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities and is empowered to act when hazardous weather threatens. Businesses must also be confident they are getting the best weather insights possible to activate that plan at the right time to ensure safety, and decision makers must pay attention to that information, if and when it becomes necessary.
Real-World Results: Protecting People, Property, and Profits
Businesses across industries have seen tangible benefits from AccuWeather For Business services:
AccuWeather exclusively provided 3x more advance notice than the NWS and all other known sources. This precious additional time, provided only by AccuWeather, enabled businesses far more time to better prepare and seek safe shelter.
More than 4 1/2 hours before the flooding began, AccuWeather Storm Warning meteorologists exclusively issued a SkyGuard® Flash Flood Watch, highlighting the increasing risk for dangerous flash flooding. Meanwhile, the government’s National Weather Service (NWS) and all other known sources NEVER issued a Flash Flood Watch to prepare people and businesses for the flooding risk.
AccuWeather’s Superior Accuracy™ is proven to save lives, prevent injuries, and protect property—outperforming other weather services and providing peace of mind for business leaders.
Learn More and Take Action
• Discover how SkyGuard® Warnings can better protect your operations
• See how businesses like yours have benefited from AccuWeather’s proven Superior Accuracy™
• Read case studies on how SkyGuard® has saved lives and minimized losses
• Request a demo of AccuWeather’s SkyGuard® Severe Weather Warnings
