Ice Ice Baby

[voguy]

Here's some pictures of broadcast towers which have been impacted by the recent storms.

This is what happens when they get about .75" of ice on the guy wires and members of the tower. This tower eventually shed the ice, and straightened up, but the stress was probably at the limit. A little more ice would have brought it down. I'm also betting that the guy strand was cheap, and the owner never tensioned it correctly.

[voguy]

Another tower which was not so lucky. This was the result of ice plus winds which caused it to twist back and forth until the welds shattered. Again, proper maintenance could have prevented this. You can see the thickness of the ice on the tower and barb-wire in some of the pictures. What happens is the buildup of ice not only adds to weight, but ruins the tower's aerodynamics causing it to oscillate.

[Malaria_Kidd II]

Man O man voguy that is wild to view all your crooked and downed tower pics! Ice Ice and more Ice is right! I've never seen results locally like that. Storm Gilbert, is that the right name, was a mean one and the flood's present damage and the southern state's tornadoes are terrible news! The death count has risen to 22 in Missouri and Illinois. 11 American citizens were killed in the tornadoes!

Fox News was live today in tiny Olive Branch, Illinois and I was through there with Illinois high grade logs many times over 16 years! I recognized the flooded houses and large farm buildings along U.S. 51. In the great Mississippi 1993 floods repeatedly we saw film of a two story farm home explode from bottom to top with a huge twisting effect. Dust flew out of the attic seen in the fly over by a TV news film crew. That home was West of Olive Branch! But this flooding is said to be worse than 1993!

[voguy]

Mother Nature is a cold hearted bitch. I've seen a lot of weather devastation, and sometimes it's just mind-blowing what winds and water can do. Now that there are more people with cameras it's easy to witness the awesomeness of nature.