[TowerTalk] Broadcast Tower Failure and Tornadoes

Lee Buller k0wa@southwind.net
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 10:42:40 -0500


Tornados and towers.....

The tower is gonna loose.  Tornados are intense funnels of air moving at
over 300 MPH, depending on how big the tornado is.  Although the wind causes
a lot of damage initially, it is what is moving in the air; all the stuff
that it has picked up.

For instance, I have seen trees mowed down, not by the wind, but by a piece
of corregated tin panel the flew off the roof a shed or barn.  Sliced a tree
in half without splintering the tree.  The tree was a hedge too which are
pretty tough.  The tin panel had to be moving at over 100 MPH if not more.
Just think what that could do to guy cables...let alone someone standing out
in the open.

Flying junk in the air does a lot of collateral damage in a tornado.  Very
few things can stand a direct hit.  I saw a tornado hit a grain
elevator...made out of concrete.  It stood, but there were not windows in
the grain elevator left and there was no grain in the bins either.  Sucked
it all out.  Wheat grew everywhere that year....good crop in the ditches.

Rule of thumb for all you guys who have never been around tornadoes.  Get
down!  Don't worry about your tower, cause it ain't gonna be there!

Lee
k0wa@southwind.net
"From the Land of the Southwind....Kansas....and I know where Oz is too, but
Toto died years ago."


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