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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Wind Power
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MacGyver Guru  Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
Crew I'm posting this here, cause it's not really windmills as such, but it's to give everyone a greater respect for the power of the wind. Five weeks ago, I had a $3K steel carport installed over my RV. On the eveing of December 19th, a cold front rolled through northern Texas and my place played "BullsEye" to what is called a "downburst tornado". It wiped out much of what I'd built since moving here in August. Here are both a before & after shot of things 
And AFTER said tornado: 
There are several more pictures in greater detail at My Web Site. Click on "House" and scroll down to TORNADO. I will rebuild. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Unfortunately it's not just the strength of the wind, but objects that get blown act as projectiles that can destroy just about anything. I hope you were insured... Cheers, Tony. |
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Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Bugger!! What a mess. Bet that put the wind up you, where were you hiding when all that took place. I would expect a fresh pair of undies was needed afterwards. Heres hoping that next year will bring better luck for you and no more downburst tornados. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
Pete Bugger indeed. I was inside my RV when it struck. My NOAA radio was in the middle of its 15-minute warning for the city of Greenville, TX, which is where the radio tower is. I'm 15 minutes upwind of Greenville, so as I was walking through my RV from the kitchen to the bedroom to better hear the radio, it hit. I was tossed first right, then left, then to the floor and the entire ordeal was begun and over with in 4 to 6 seconds. I just got off the phone with my contractor about an hour ago. He and I are meeting in the morning to discuss ground-breaking on my new structure, a 20' by 35' by 12' high CONCRETE AND STEEL structure, which will have several tons of earth pushed up against each of three sides as well as a two-foot-deep layer of soil on its roof. My intention is to back my 2012 RV (what's left of it, that is) into the structure and build a "Hobbit" style door on the front side, then live virtually underground. When it's completed, I'm considering designing an automatic flag-raising system, which when the weather turns to "damaging" the machine senses it and hoists a flag with a large middle finger on it! . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
We will have to call you "Mac-Rabbit" You can grow your carrots on the roof and the mushrooms in the cave. It could be easier (and cheaper) to get a couple of shipping containers to place either side of the RV, and place a concrete deck over the RV, that way you have a sturdy construction and 2 new workshops to boot. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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| Privatteer Newbie  Joined: 09/06/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 39 |
Its amazing what wind can do. I was surprised how long ago the date was on this but 7years ago we had one hit the city. 
Since then we have had a couple more. When I built my new patio it got the main poles beefed up and it was still moving a bit in 140km/h gusts. I have however weathered a cyclone in a steel sea container appropriately secured to the ground and they don't move. |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Mack Bad luck there mate, but looking at your structure it was a bit flimsy, I had one similar blow away in the wind that bent my mill on the roof of the shed 65MS according to my weather station and that lasted for nearly one hour, it even blew over my banana plants but the tomatoes survived as they where in the lee of the house. Good luck with the rebuild, and I think you should look into the shipping container construction as we use them in rural windy areas with good success and fitted with a good roof well attached will survive sever storms, and they are really cost effective. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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mac46 Guru Joined: 07/02/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 412 |
Hello Mac; Look into prestressed concrete planks for the structure you are planning on building, around here there seems to be some around that can be purchased for a fraction. Seems they are left over extras and meet all engineered requirements for load bearing up to a point, data should be available to their rateings. These are strengthened with steel cables and are or have hollow cores, but require a crain to be unloaded and set into place. Just a passing thought, sorry for the misfortune. Mac46 I'm just a farmer |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
On shipping Containers Thanks for all the advice, but I'm sticking to my plan of building a type 1 building (steel and concrete). The reason is, I recently watched a clip on The Weather Chanel showing TWO tractor-trailer rigs swirling together in a tornado cloud, each about a hundred feet in the air. No thanks! A shipping container might be a good idea if it were burried either partially or completely, but then there's the part of my living in my RV; I can't fit my RV inside a sea-cargo container. I bought this RV specifically to live in for the rest of my life. I'm a person of meager needs for those wondering if I've lost my mind. Some would even say I'm a "minimalist". At any rate, I begin digging footings in the next week or two. I'm tying the entire structure in rebar and that includes the roof. It will be concrete and steel as well. I don't know if there's enought free dirt in my neighborhood to completely cover a 12-foot-tall building, so I may be relegated to burying it only about 2/3 of the way up the sides. After it's built and I'm inside living in it, I may build a sea-cargo-container "annex" along one side, but the way I've planned it, I should have plenty of room for me, the RV AND a dandy back shed all within the footprint of the building (aka bunker). . . . . . Macrabbit :O) Good one Pete! Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
It should be possible to dig a giant hole to maybe half to two thirds the required depth, build a snug refuge for your vehicle, then pile the removed earth back against the walls of the structure, so the whole thing is a kind of squat aerodynamic dome shape. It would probably need a skylight and ventilation in a concrete slab roof, which could be quickly covered up when needed. Not suggesting you live in it, but as soon as you start hearing storm warnings, it should offer very good protection from flying debris. As any old soldier will tell you, a slit trench offers very good protection when "stuff" starts flying around. Underground has to be the best solution. Cheers, Tony. |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Most rabbits are. Have you noticed your nose starting to twitch, and your ears growing longer, not to mention a furry bum. 
Then if i remember correct a few years ago you were on a strict leafy green diet to, hmmm, join the dots. Sounds like a wabbit to me. Mother nature will get mad with you and then flood your burrow....err bunker. All you need next is some fox to burrow in with you. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
@ Pete Even though I'm in a 1,000-year flood plain, I've decided to build my "Hobbit House" at ground level, then import soil and stack it up the sides at a 2:1 slope. Ground water here can be as high as 3 to 4 feet from the ground surface during the rainy season and the last thing I need is to wake up in the middle of a pond inside a shelter. I'll be posting pictures on my Web page as well as chiming in here now and then so folks can follow along. I'm hoping to do most of the work myself as a cost-cutting measure. My hope is I can have it done by May this year, which is the height of tornado season in North Texas. One nice thing is, with a flat, steel-reinforced concrete roof, it will make a dandy windmill platform for all my toys. if I encounter another tornado, sure, the toys will fly, but I should be safe and warm underground beneath the fray. A 20' x 40' concrete pad will make a dandy starting place for my latest VAWT, which I'd like to have a 10'-diameter single, flat blade. I'll keep you in the loop. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Hi Macrabbit, How is the burrow coming along? I had a thought that Macrabbit might not be a well suited nickname and piggy#3 might be better. First piggy had a house of straw and the big bad wife blew it away and drove off in the Merc. Second piggy built a house of sticks and the big bad tornado huffed and puffed and blew his house away. Third piggy built his house of bricks, concrete, and earth, and the big bad tornado tried to huff and puff, whirl and twirl, but could not blow the house down, on old MacGyvers farm. 
Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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