ANGLETON – A circus tent partially caved in due to heavy rain and winds in Angleton Friday night, leading to a chaotic evacuation.
But the show was back on in La Marque by Saturday afternoon, and folks with the Carson and Barnes Circus say the big top is safe and ready to go.
There are 105 of four-foot stakes holding the tent up and a handful of them started to give way Friday, making for a much more frightening circus act that was caught on cell phone video.
"Now we ask everyone not to worry," said Ringmaster Jairo Ojeda, turning from showman to crowd-calmer as rain started pouring through cracks in the big top.
Raw video: Circus tent collapses during performance
"It's just water and wind," he said in cell video Laura Solis captured. But his soothing voice didn't make a difference for long.
"The circus guy's like, 'Well, it's just a little rain and water, it won't hurt you.' I'm like yeah right, they're not from Texas," said Solis.
Solis was rolling on her camera phone as 900 people started pushing their way out of the wind-blown tent.
You can hear her yell, "The storm hit bad," as children cry in the background.
"We could hear parents, 'I lost my daughter, I can't find her.' It was scary," said Solis' cousin Martha Morales, who was also at the circus with her two kids and little brother.
"The curtains were pushing and I thought it was an elephant," said Morales' 7-year-old daughter Mela Hall.
Morales' 9-year-old brother Mikol McManners added, "Whenever the dude said it's just a little rain and water, I was thinking to go up there and say, 'Really? Really?'"
That "dude" Mikol mentioned was Ringmaster Jairo Ojeda, and he says the situation wasn't as bad as it looked.
"Each strap holds 3,000 pounds. Our tent withstands up to 60-70 mph winds," said Ojeda, pointing out the tent's structural support.
On Saturday the stakes were dug into hard asphalt, but Friday night it was soggy turf at the Brazoria County Fairgrounds and a few stakes started inching out, making the tent lean and partially cave in. Organizers purposely moved to a pavement setting at Gulf Greyhound Park in La Marque on Saturday to keep the tent more secure. Anyone who was there for the spoiled Friday night show can get in for free Saturday and Sunday, or come to Gulf Greyhound Park get a refund.
Organizers say they watch the weather carefully, but that that wasn't really the problem. It was just how wet the ground became during the storms.
"It would have withstood but just the ground gave out," said Ojeda. "It's one of those things that shouldn't have happened, but it did."
When they realized the risk, circus crews opened emergency exits and ushered everyone to their cars.
"No pushing, no shoving, watch the children," you can hear Ojeda say in the video.
But it turned chaotic.
"Everybody started screaming and running," said Solis.
Jason Davis' son lost a shoe in the mad dash. He was back Saturday looking for it.
"Hopefully we get lucky," said Davis.
Right now, everyone is feeling lucky that the circus scare didn't turn any worse.
"I think they should have canceled," said Morales.
