Edwardsville Amazon warehouse collapse
First responders at the scene of the collapse of DLI4 | |
| Date | December 10, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Time | 8:29 p.m. CST (UTC−6) |
| Location | DLI4 warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, United States |
| Coordinates | 38°45′58″N 90°02′10″W / 38.7661°N 90.0361°W |
| Cause | Tornado |
| Deaths | 6 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 4 (1 critical) |
On the evening of December 10, 2021, a tornado struck the DLI4 delivery facility in Edwardsville, Illinois, United States, an Amazon warehouse that oversees delivery logistics for the Greater St. Louis region. A majority of workers that evening were temporary contractors brought in to assist with the additional volume of goods moved due to the Christmas holiday, with only seven of the 45 on site being employed full-time at the warehouse. When a tornado warning was received, confusion as to the proper location of DLI4's storm shelter led to 10 employees taking shelter at a bathroom on the southern side of the building; the tornado would strike the same southern side, collapsing the west-facing wall onto the bathroom, killing six and critically injuring one. The response was handled by emergency personnel from across the St. Louis region.
Following the collapse, Amazon was scrutinized for its handling of the event. Criticism was aimed at Jeff Bezos for attending a Blue Origin launch instead of addressing the collapse in Edwardsville, at Amazon as a company for improperly communicating and handling the expected severe weather, and at the firms that built DLI4 for allegedly not building the warehouse up to building code. When DLI4 was rebuilt and reopened in 2024, neither it nor any other facility in the commercial district it was located in had any storm shelters, nor was the new structure of DLI4 built to withstand the extreme winds that the initial tornado produced.