EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Amazon is planning to rebuild its Edwardsville warehouse that collapsed in a tornado Friday, killing six of the company’s workers.
The 1.1 million-square-foot building opened in July 2020 and is one of Amazon’s newest in the St. Louis region. The delivery center, which Amazon refers to as DL14, is located at 3077 Gateway Commerce Center Drive South in Edwardsville.
Amazon did not provide a timeline for when the warehouse might be rebuilt or give further details in response to questions, but the e-commerce giant said it would give paid time off to the roughly 190 employees who work in multiple shifts at the site. The delivery station, just one of several types of facilities that Amazon operates, was a “last mile” facility for pickup of packages by drivers from outside delivery services and Amazon Flex, the company’s own delivery program, Amazon said.
“We’re committed to this community. We’re going to rebuild this site,” said John Felton, Amazon’s senior vice president of global delivery and services, at a press conference Monday with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “We’re going to come together. We’re motivated to bring this community back together, bring this site back together. And that’s what I’m here for.”
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened an investigation Monday into whether any workplace safety or health violations contributed to the disaster. Amazon said the building met local codes for construction.
Pritzker said Monday that he is asking the same questions many people have about whether any structural default in the building contributed to the deaths inside, but added that it was too early to know.
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