As shoulder-high drifts accumulated outside all traffic came to a halt. Then suddenly, without warning the theater roof gave out a loud crack and came crashing down upon the audience -- carrying the balcony with it, and burying men, women, and children under tons of concrete, steel, plaster, and snow. Leaving 98 dead and more than a 150 injured.

A frantic call for help went out around midnight, and within minutes Captain C. W. Hoover, QMC, led a 5-truck convoy through the treacherous streets to reach the scene of this human catastrophe. Over the course of the next 36 hours he and his fellow Quartermasters continued pulling the dead and seriously injured victims from the twisted wreckage, and were credited with saving many lives.