Pawnee Furniture Store Roof Collapses

Some Pawnee business owners spent Monday cleaning up after the roof of their furniture store caved in from all the recent rain.

Mayor Brad Sewell said it's been a rough year for Pawnee - from a big earthquake last fall, to the roof caving in on a building that's been there for more than 90 years.

The owners of Spears Furniture Store in Pawnee are cleaning up a major mess.

"This is really unusual. I don't recall any time that a roof has just collapsed like this," Sewell said.

The mayor says the roof of Spears Furniture Store gave way around 3:00 Monday morning.

He said it's a combination of a faulty storm drain and a heavy amount of rain piling up all at once on a roof built in the 1920s.

"A roof that accumulates more weight than it's designed for is susceptible to something like this," Sewell said.

He said upkeep is key, especially on a building that old; but, Sewell said he doesn't think the Spears are at fault.

"Spears is pretty good about that, but I think this is just something that, if you don't know it's happening, you don't know to fix it,"    he said.

Only part of the store was damaged, so Spears will stay open for business.