On Tuesday, June 30, a severe storm with high winds and funnel clouds aloft
cut a path through Canton - Louisville - Paris Ohio area, causing
significant uprooting and snapping of trees. This storm continued eastward,
later causing damage in the Pittsburgh (PA) area. The Akron-Canton regional
airport was closed overnight as a result of this storm.
Scott, K8DX (ex-NI8L) lost one of his Rohn 55G towers, and sustained damage
to the other. The tower that collapsed was 170 feet tall.
I visited the site yesterday and the tower, along with a stack of long boom
20 meter antennas were crumpled on the ground and bent like spaghetti. Two
legs of the base section were snapped off very cleanly just above the
concrete, and some of the welds that hold bracing to tower legs were
snapped. The second tower is still standing, with a noticeable bend about
halfway up caused by a large tree that still rests on one of the guy wires.
The failure appears to have been caused by multiple LARGE trees collapsing
across the tower guys. Scott literally lost dozens of trees in this storm,
some were uprooted completely, and others snapped off - some near the
ground, others snapped off as high as 30 feet up. A nearby home that was
under construction was also flattened by the winds, and a neighboring
garage, also under construction, was lifted from its foundation and dropped
about 25 feet away.
I have taken photographs of the carnage, which I hope to post to my web site
this weekend.
The position of the failed tower structure and the antennas on the ground
are consistent with the conventional wisdom that a failing guyed tower will
fall within 50% or less of it's height.
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Amateur Radio Station K3GP - P.O. Box 343 - Louisville, Ohio 44641
Station Location - Alliance, Ohio - Grid Square EN90kv
Amateur Radio Home Page: http://www.qsl.net/k3gp
Vegetarian - An old Indian word meaning "I don't hunt so good"
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