Tower tumbles wrong way during Ohio demolition
Watch the video. Someone's calculations were just a little bit off, and the smokestack fell onto power lines rather than the open space that had been its planned spot. They're claiming that there was a crack in the base of the stack that caused it to fall in an unexpected direction - except that's the very sort of thing that should have been caught long before the first explosives were placed.SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – A nearly 300-foot smokestack being demolished at an old Ohio power plant toppled in the wrong direction and sent spectators scrambling Wednesday before knocking down two 12,000-volt power lines and crashing onto a building housing backup generators, officials said.
No injuries were reported after the 275-foot tower at the unused 83-year-old Mad River Power Plant teetered and then fell in a southeast direction — instead of east, as originally planned — seconds after explosives were detonated.
Engineering ain't no place for feelings, folks...
In a way, it's a metaphor for life. No matter how well you think you have something planned, no matter how thoroughly you think you may have thought something out, there's always Mr. Murphy waiting just around the corner to prove you wrong. Nothing is foolproof. Very little ever goes according to plan. Having back-up plans and redundant failsafes is important - one of the core reasons we play those "what-if" games both as gunnies and in our day-to-day lives as well. Watching the video, it's clear that no one had expected the smokestack to fall in that direction, as people are scattering as it lands on the wires.
Have a plan. Have a back-up plan. Have a contingency plan, too. Life is a big game of chess - there's all kinds of different pieces you have to be aware of, and if you miss even one of them you're in for a world of hurt. Stay sharp, plan ahead, be aware and you'll be fine; calling something "good enough" and then walking away and you'll quickly find yourself behind the 8-ball - or watching a 300 foot smokestack come crashing down around you. Don't ever let down your guard - not for a second.
The only time you should be in Condition White is when they're lowering your body into the ground.
That is all.
Sent to me by brad_in_ma - thanks Brad!
6 comments:
The only time you should be in Condition White is when they're lowering your body into the ground.
That's tiring way to live. I can't even stay in yellow for more than a couple of hours before my attention wanes.
But remember - the inefficient, bumbling government could wire two enormous towers chock-full of people and cause them to pancake-collapse, precisely as calculated. TRUTHY!!
+10 on the Condition White. Side note: this Tower debacle was brought to you by First Energy. Remember when you were up here for the NorthCoast Blogshoot and Breda was showing you around? Did you notice that smoke stack on the Horizon? That was Ground Zero a few years back for the biggest Blackout in U.S. history. Why did it happen? Because the new CEO of First Energy thought they could save money by doing Tree Trimming every 2 years and replacing the experienced Power Plant Operators with recent grads from the Homer Simpson School of Engineering. Then there was the Cracked Lid on the Containment Vessel at the Davis-Besse Nuke Plant they owned, where they thought they could save money by re-welding said crack over and over and over, in spite of it being too brittle any more. People went to jail over that because they lied to the NRC. But the CEO swore the company never authorized the procedure.
First Energy: As good as generating Electricity as BP is at Oil Spills.
Wow those girls got out just under the wire...literally!
SCARY stuff!
You know.. I live 20 miles from there. I used to work in the area for Xerox. I didn't post about this because I thought /shrug nobody will care. Now everybody is talking about it... LOL
I first noticed it at SayUncle on the gun blogs, but I think he is from these parts?
Actually, there's LOTS of room for feelings in engineering. You just have to be able to back up that initial feeling with hard numbers.
Which is why I dropped out of engineering school. I could build anything and make it work, but when they wanted me to prove "WHY" ... well, squiggly lines and numbers weren't my strong point.
Post a Comment