[AT] Scary wind damage.

Fri Mar 13 07:37:07 PDT 2009

It is a bit intimidating to say the least Mike.  The first hurricane I can 
remember was Hazel and I guess I was about 3 or 4.  I can remember lying on 
my parents bed.  The house was only about 3 years old and well built.  The 
rain was blowing up through the joint where the double hung sashes meet and 
into the house.

I didn't mean to deminish Farmers wind because torando type winds pick up 
about where hurricane winds leave off  but sitting for hours inside your 
house, usually it seems at night, with the wind blowing constantly from 80 
to 125 mph wears on your nerves pretty good.  You can hear things crashing 
and blowing around and have no way to know what they are.  If you are real 
lucky and the eye goes directly over you there is a calm spell and then it 
blows from the other direction for a few hours.  I've been through 3 eyes. 
It's a strange sight.  Dead calm, clear skies and birds flying around in 
circles.

There is a progression of wind speed you learn to look for.  I don't know 
how it translates into speed but it's a good indicator of intensity of the 
storm.  First the tree tops start to sway violently back and forth. 
Everyone has seen that.  Then the tree trunks start to sway back and forth. 
It's starting to get serious.  Then the trees just kind of bow over and the 
tops wave kind of like a flag in a strong breeze.  It's getting bad then but 
not really tearing stuff up.  Next the trees are bowed over and the tops are 
layed straight out like the whip antenna on the back of the patrolmans car 
in a high speed chase with the leaves and small branches violently vibrating 
like the end of a flag in a heavy wind.  After that stuff starts comming 
apart.

You are right.  You do have some time to prepare.  Not like the tornado 
winds that just blow stuff apart before you knew what hit you.  That is why 
I drew the comparison to Farmers winds.  From what he said it seems it got 
right to that ragged edge and luckily backed off.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike" <msm10301 at juno.com>
To: <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: [AT] Scary wind damage.

>I can't imagine trying to do that Charlie, the wind sounds must really 
>start to frazzle your nerves after a while. I guess the ONLY saving grace 
>with a hurricane is that it does give you time to prepare i.e. board up or 
>leave. Mike
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> From: "charliehill" <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Subject: Re: [AT] Scary wind damage.
> Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:33:28 -0400
>
> Farmer, if that storm had lasted for half a day you'd know what it like to
> ride out a bad hurricane.
>
> Glad you got through it with only minor damage.  It could have been very
> bad.   I hear they are having more high water/flood problems out your way
> also?
>
> Charlie
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Indiana Robinson" <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" 
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>;
> <FrugalRuralLiving at yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 8:00 AM
> Subject: [AT] Scary wind damage.
>
>
>> In the wee hours of Wednesday morning I was awakened by the sound of
>> fierce wind and driving rain. We don't usually hear much of those
>> noises since much of this house is stone and it is big enough that
>> sound doesn't usually travel well in it. If Diana is in one end of the
>> house and I in the other neither of us can yell and make ourselves
>> heard by the other. We seldom hear much noise from outside unless we
>> have windows open.
>> This wind was absolutely screaming and roaring like you would expect
>> from a twister. I don't normally react much to weather except to check
>> windows and doors. Most storms I just sleep through. I went to the
>> front of the house to check things and went to the slant wall solar
>> room to look out. it didn't take me long to back out of there.  :-)
>> Lots of glass flexing going on.
>> The barn where the farm shop is sits only about 100 feet from the
>> house but I could not see it at all. It seemed more like a wave than
>> rain moving straight sideways. I believe that every window in the
>> house was shaking. I don't know if the house was shaking or if that
>> was me.   :-)   I was sleeping pretty soundly when it woke me
>> suddenly.
>> I've sat out a lot of storms in my time but this bit was stronger than
>> anything I had ever seen here. I went to wake Diana up to head to the
>> basement but by the time I woke her it had settled back to normal
>> storm levels. Since it was dark and we couldn't see much we went back
>> to bed. I fully expected to find some serious damage the next morning
>> but was surprised to see little. There were small branches and twigs
>> around and we lost one big limb but that was about it. We have had so
>> much high wind this year about anything lose has already blown down.
>> Yesterday evening Son Scott and I were driving past our barns down the
>> road to the west and I spotted what looked like some damage to the big
>> barn there. We drove in the barnyard at the house and dropped the
>> tandem trailer and went back to investigate. Sure enough, on one
>> corner there was some damage to about 6 feet of wall where the shed
>> roof on that part had lifted slightly and the top of the wall had
>> moved out about 16". Then I realized that the bottom of the corner
>> post was sitting about a foot farther north than normal. OK, how did
>> that post move like that? We started checking the rest of the barn and
>> got a shock. Much of the east half of that barn had moved at least 8"
>> to the north... One post in the center of the barn had moved 8" to 10"
>> north and was barely sitting on the edge of its stone base. Other post
>> were leaning since their base had not moved but the tops had. Several
>> beam joints showed movement.
>> This old barn has been needing some work for some time and is well
>> over 100 years old but I never worried about its strength before.
>> These old barns are pretty tough and this one is pretty good sized. It
>> is at least 36' x 64' with loft in all of it except for one drive
>> through and one small end section with a shed roof.
>> We mostly use it for keeping some of our old tractors in and for hay
>> storage. I was going to move 4 old tractors in there this week but now
>> I will be moving the three currently in there out until I have it
>> stabilized. Several of the original mortise & tenon joints show
>> damage, a couple pretty bad. It has a couple of large openings to the
>> south and we assume that the wind built enough pressure inside to
>> partially lift the east end. We believe the west end didn't get
>> shifted since a large pair of sliding doors in back at that end had
>> broken loose and swung out at least 6 feet at the bottom and likely
>> relieved the pressure buildup there.
>> Something else that I have never seen before was that here were two
>> flatbed hay wagons parked outside near the barn and as we were looking
>> around Scott suddenly realized that he had parked his truck where the
>> wagons had been sitting. The wind had blown those two wagons about 80'
>> to the north east from where they were parked. One was backed up to
>> one small grain bin and the other was about 30 feet away backed up
>> against another small grain bin. I've sure never had that happen
>> before...
>> It all seemed to be localized in a small area. Less than 400' to the
>> south of the house Diana had picked up a batch of dried willow sticks
>> and piled them up. The wind never moved the first little twig and that
>> stuff weighs almost nothing.
>> I guess I will feed the horses this morning and then move the old
>> tractors to safety and start figuring out where to start on getting
>> that barn stabilized before the next spring storm.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> "farmer"
>>
>> "Good clean muck never hurt nobody!!!"
>> Morris Moulterd
>>
>>
>> Join "Shopsmith owners" group at:
>> SS_owners-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
>> For anyone with an interest in Shopsmith
>> woodworking machines. See the group home page at:
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SS_owners/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=1
>> Visit Shopsmith at:
>> www.shopsmith.com
>>
>>
>> Francis Robinson
>> Central Indiana USA
>> robinson46176 at gmail.com
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