Wind damage - storm Eowyn.

[Gilberdyke John]

The impending doom media are in full swing but luckily I'm out of the main firing line here. The pennines and the Yorkshire wolds tend to provide attenuation of wind forces. However I do recall a morning when I was operations manager for Pozzolanic. We lived in Woolston (Warrington). My alarm clock had gone off and I was slowly waking up when the telephone rang. Still not fully awake I answered to hear the foreman at our Fiddlers Ferry fly ash plant say the cooling tower next to the portakabin has fallen down.
That took a few moments to register both as I was still waking up and the sheer unlikelihood of such an event. As it happened all our staff were safe and no debris came towards the fly ash facility. A couple of hours later the water to the tower had been switched round the failed unit and operations at the power station continued.
The inevitable inquest discovered the concrete structure was capable of withstanding the positive wind force but being grouped with other towers a negative pressure area had been created which in effect pulled the shell outwards and structural failure occurred. Brown underwear time for anyone nearby! If memory serves the same design had been used on other power stations (Ferrybridge C I think?) which saw reinforcement works to avoid similar events.
On a personal side one of our house ridge tiles was dislodged which flipped and broke the adjacent flat tile. I begged a new tile from a roofer working a couple of doors away and replaced it and the ridge tile a couple of days later when the wind died down. Happier days when I was more agile.

https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/23838913.fiddlers-ferry-towers-blown---30-years-ago/

 

[Penninetrader]

The impending doom media are in full swing but luckily I'm out of the main firing line here. The pennines and the Yorkshire wolds tend to provide attenuation of wind forces. However I do recall a morning when I was operations manager for Pozzolanic. We lived in Woolston (Warrington). My alarm clock had gone off and I was slowly waking up when the telephone rang. Still not fully awake I answered to hear the foreman at our Fiddlers Ferry fly ash plant say the cooling tower next to the portakabin has fallen down.
That took a few moments to register both as I was still waking up and the sheer unlikelihood of such an event. As it happened all our staff were safe and no debris came towards the fly ash facility. A couple of hours later the water to the tower had been switched round the failed unit and operations at the power station continued.
The inevitable inquest discovered the concrete structure was capable of withstanding the positive wind force but being grouped with other towers a negative pressure area had been created which in effect pulled the shell outwards and structural failure occurred. Brown underwear time for anyone nearby! If memory serves the same design had been used on other power stations (Ferrybridge C I think?) which saw reinforcement works to avoid similar events.
On a personal side one of our house ridge tiles was dislodged which flipped and broke the adjacent flat tile. I begged a new tile from a roofer working a couple of doors away and replaced it and the ridge tile a couple of days later when the wind died down. Happier days when I was more agile.

https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/23838913.fiddlers-ferry-towers-blown---30-years-ago/

Agile, I know that one.Strange thing being that I am more agile navigating a scaffold and working on an incline than walking on flat ground. So you worked in " enemy territory " for a time Reading posts on this forum indicates a membership of have done and can do. Takes much to impress on here