Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, "The Wreck of the Ozarks"


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...8?OpenDocument

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

Gene Kearns wrote:
On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 15:55:23 -0500, Harry Krause penned the following
well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

On 12/7/2006 3:38 PM, Chad wrote:
docks collapse under the snow

http://di-vo.net/diozarks/




Those sure are lightly built covered docks.

Not only that.... how smart do you have to be to get on top of a
roof... most any roof... with a leaf blower and make the snow hit the
ground?

Most of the structures around here are not built to take New England
style snow loads..... so the prudent property owner dispatches the
snow as necessary...

--

Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepage
http://pamandgene.idleplay.net/

Rec.boats at Lee Yeaton's Bayguide
http://www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats

Even when designed by all applicable codes, or insurance company
standards such as Factory Mutual, roofs may see loads in excess of
design criteria. Just this last week, we dealt with a million square
foot facility that I worked on in Missouri that had accumulated very
wet heavy snow in excess of design loads. Thankfully, not enough to
cause a catastrophic event! I told them to turn the heat up in the
building as high as they could, let me know if more snow/freezing temps
were expected.
A few years ago in Virginia one of my structures had so much snow above
design criteria that in some places they had joist deflections right at
the limit. Conduit that they had going from machines up to the joists
was buckling! Ended up having them rent some snow blowers and get on
the roof and start getting snow off! THAT was a sleepless night for me.

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

While at the Tehran Airport in December 1974 (the 17th I think) the dome
roof in the main center area of the place collapsed killing dozens. I was
lucky to be in an adjacent space having a cup of tea while a local baggage
guy was in line to precheck my luggage for the flight home.

Took me a couple of hpours to get out but was only very dirty and a little
scratched up. Of course I never saw any trace of my baggage again.

The roof failure was due to snow load. In Iran there was a dedicated work
force who did nothing but sweep snow from roofs during the winters. I don't
know why they had not taken care of the airport but I promise you someone
was executed for that oversight.

Butch
"Gene Kearns" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 15:55:23 -0500, Harry Krause penned the following
well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

On 12/7/2006 3:38 PM, Chad wrote:
docks collapse under the snow

http://di-vo.net/diozarks/




Those sure are lightly built covered docks.

Not only that.... how smart do you have to be to get on top of a
roof... most any roof... with a leaf blower and make the snow hit the
ground?

Most of the structures around here are not built to take New England
style snow loads..... so the prudent property owner dispatches the
snow as necessary...

--

Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepage
http://pamandgene.idleplay.net/

Rec.boats at Lee Yeaton's Bayguide
http://www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

Those sure are lightly built covered docks.

Not only that.... how smart do you have to be to get on top of a
roof... most any roof... with a leaf blower and make the snow hit the
ground?

Most of the structures around here are not built to take New England
style snow loads..... so the prudent property owner dispatches the
snow as necessary...



Gene, Here in the midwest this past week, in a narrow band from
Springfield/Kansas City up to Decatur Illinois, we had one of the worst ice
storms on record, followed by the snow. Over a 36 hour period last Thursday,
3 inches of rain fell as freezing rain as a cold front moved through,
forming up to 2" of ice which destroyed trees and left almost a million
households without power. They are still getting power restored to some
folks here 8 days later. The power company has brought in crews form 14
states to help with the grid repair.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...9?OpenDocument

http://www.ameren.com/Outage/ADC_RS_StormCenter.asp

We lost 1 big tree at one of our rental homes, and 2 of our rental homes
were without power for 4 days. Thankfully, we only got the ice and very
little snow here, near St. Louis, but the folks over by the Lake and
Jefferson City got up to 14" of snow on top of the ice. A grocery store roof
collapsed under the weight in Washington MO just yesterday.

I'm pretty sure they couldn't have gotten onto any roof in those conditions,
much less a flimsy tin one.

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

Same deal on many of the lakes here in nc and sc. If the level
fluctuates much you have to have a floating dock. If you want it
covered then the floats have to carry up that load too. So the focus
is on making the roof as light as possible. We don't see that sort of
snow load though.

Stanley Barthfarkle wrote:
I am not sure I believe what I think I see. Are those floating docks?
They appear to be.
What happens under normal circumstances if a boat goes by and leaves a
bit of a wake?
Does the top bend and give?

Weird.

Eisboch


I vacation there and yes they are floating docks with most being concrete
floors with encapusilated foam for floatation and some marinas have break
water docks or are in a no wake cove but when a big 45 to 55 cruiser
comes along they will do a rocking and a bobbing


Are the poles that support the roof attach to the docks? It's hard to
tell in the pictures, but it seems like they might. If so, that roof must
do some major flexing.



Yes, the aluminum floating docks flex a bit. No, it is not a noticeable
amount to the naked eye. No, the "waves" on Lake of the Ozarks are not even
close to the size of ocean waves. The "lake" (dammed river) is barely a mile
wide, surrounded by Ozark hills, and has thousands of miles of shoreline,
mainly in protected coves.

--- Trivia: There are more miles of shoreline at Lake of the Ozarks than
ocean shoreline in the entire lower 48 states.

These docks are glorified aluminum carports on foam (or PVC air chamber)
floats. The large docks are commercial ventures, such as private clubs, who
charge about $100/mo or more for a place to leave your boat when you go back
to the city.

The private docks are usually more substantially built structures, sitting
next to multi-million $ lake homes. They invariably float, since the lake
level regularly fluctuates by up to 10' with the power company's need to
make power, (from the hydroelectric dam which forms the lake) or with any
recent precipitation or lack thereof.

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

jamesgangnc wrote:
Same deal on many of the lakes here in nc and sc. If the level
fluctuates much you have to have a floating dock. If you want it
covered then the floats have to carry up that load too. So the focus
is on making the roof as light as possible. We don't see that sort of
snow load though.

The lakes in Tenn that are part of the TVA get drained down every
winter, some as much as 20'. If you go to Lake Cumberland in KY, and go
to Grider Hill Marina in the late fall, you'll back down a ramp that's
a few hundred feet long. Even the fuel dock/marina store floats. On
Lake Center Hill, I was amazed that the dock I use when we go on our
fall fishing trip was submerged, the road TO that ramp was the summer
ramp!

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

The problem was the ice. Some of the docks had 4-5 inches of ice on the
roof. Add to that a foot of snow, and it's a recipe for disaster. My
dock was sitting about a foot lower in the water than it usually does.
Luckily it didn't get damaged. Around the corner from me, at Village
Marina, they lost 3 twenty-four slip docks. It looked like a giant shoe
stepped on them.They have a total of 8 of these commercial docks. The
strange thing is, the three that went down were new, replaced 2 years
ago. All the older ones were fine. Another thing, some of the boat
owners might not have insurance coverage. You would think that the dock
owner would be responsible, but if it's not in the slip rental
agreement, well..... Also, your boat policy might not cover it unless
you have an ice and snow rider on it; act of God thing, ya know. Gotta
love insurance.There were a lot of big, high dollar boats at these
docks. 40-50 ft Carvers, 42ft Fountains, etc. Oh, as far as lake
levels, it never varies more than 2 feet in the summer, and in the
winter it's usually 5-6 ft down. I've been here 12 years and I've only
seen it 8 ft low once, and that was so they could work on the dam.


Bodean

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 18:58:28 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

All those big boats on those little lakes...

Floating condos/weekend getaways.

Makes sense for some people.

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 18:58:28 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

All those big boats on those little lakes...

Floating condos/weekend getaways.

Makes sense for some people.


Little? It;s over 90 miles long with 1000+ miles of shoreline, and some of
the most beautiful scenery in the nation... How big a lake do you need?

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage
 

Stanley Barthfarkle wrote:
We lost 1 big tree at one of our rental homes, and 2 of our rental homes
were without power for 4 days. Thankfully, we only got the ice and very
little snow here, near St. Louis, but the folks over by the Lake and
Jefferson City got up to 14" of snow on top of the ice. A grocery store roof
collapsed under the weight in Washington MO just yesterday.


Stanley, I'm straight east of St. L. , and we were way south of that
storm. I'm very thankful we didn't ahve that damage that Decatur and
even Danville got. All we had out of the whole deal was a slight bit
of snow. not even enough to turn the grass white.