Free Credit Report

Lake of the Ozarks 14inch winter storm damage

docks collapse under the snow

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

Chad
Dec 7
2006
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

bodean
Dec 9
Floating condos/weekend getaways. Makes sense for some people. Wayne.B
Dec 9
I guess. My only real experience with lake boating was when I was a kid in Connecticut. My dad "used" the lakes to set up his hydroplanes and utility hydroplanes. He was the terror of Lake Zoar and the Indian River.

I fished a few of Florida's bass lakes when we lived there. "Boatus Minimus" seemed the best bet to me. If I were headed back down there or near the Florida ICW, I'd go for a Carolina Skiff fishing boat.

Harry
Dec 9
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? Stanley
Dec 9
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. Tim
Dec 9
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/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/61897F27118F18F78625723E00142819?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.

Stanley
Dec 8
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:

jamesgangnc
Dec 8
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! basskisser
Dec 8
Your facts aren't what... correct? More coastline than CA, I believe, more than the lower 48? Hardly.

--Mike

Mike
Dec 8
You are correct. My facts aren't. As in, my facts are not correct. Can't fool you. Stanley
Dec 8
St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, "The Wreck of the Ozarks"

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/5B743AE376B0173A8625723C00172278?OpenDocument

Stanley
Dec 8
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. basskisser
Dec 8
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
Dec 8
Those sure are lightly built covered docks. Harry
Dec 7
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

Eisboch
Dec 7
It is the norm to have floating docks on damned lakes. Reginald
Dec 7
They may well be designed by code. Exceptionally wet snow, with more than normal amounts will make a roof structure fail. basskisser
Dec 7
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.

Eisboch

Eisboch
Dec 7
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. Stanley
Dec 7
All those big boats on those little lakes... Harry
Dec 7
following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats: Gene
Dec 8
well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

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
Dec 8
Yep. My facts aren't. :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Ozarks

Stanley
Dec 8
   

Disclaimer: This is a computer-generated and formatted feed of current postings to a public
Internet forum. We do not control the information delivered, nor do we endorse or monitor its
content. Internet forums may carry offensive, harmful, inaccurate, and otherwise inappropriate material.
Click to see the RSS XML version of this page   Click to see the Atom XML version of this page