Ice Storm

[lwalker00]

If a dock is properly designed for the snow load (or ice) it should go down "level" under the load. The issue comes in if the dock has old "white" foam that has lost bouancy or has been underfloated , this usually happens on a dock that originally had white foam and has been upgraded to encapsulated foam, for some reason a lot of refoamers short cut on the refoam.

When the dock goes down un-even it will cause the roof to lean and collapse in one direction or the other. I have seen them split down the middle and fall both ways also. When the ice storm hit at lake of the ozarks a couple of years ago we had 4" of Ice with 12 to 18" of snow. There were millions of dollars in docks that collapsed but most of them all had white foam under them. One of the other problems is that most of the docks on T-rock or other lakes down there is that they are not built as "heavy" as a lake of the ozarks dock. Therefore they are prone to collapse much quicker.

A dock with "in-line" slips is more prone to "lean" and and collapse under the weight, where as a dock with slips down both sides of a "main walk" will typically be more stable. One thing that we recommend is pulling all concrete decking off of the fingers so the ends of the fingers are better supported by the flotation. Obviously, On docks with wood deck this is not an option.

Docks don't collapse often but when there is an unusual snow or ice event you have to prepare for it by getting as much weight off the dock ends as possible. We also have crews that go out and remove the snow from the roofs. I have seen people place 55 gallon drums on the dock and build a fire to help "heat" the roof from underneath. I don't recommend this or know if it is helpful.

Hope this helps understand how it can and does happen.

By the way, my company does have commercial docks around the country and we did not have any go down during this ice and snow event!!! We did have some go down at lake of the Ozarks but they were all "old" docks with White Foam and we encouraged the owners to replace the foam 5 years before the collapse!!!

We did have docks go down to the point the "steel" was in the water but they just floated back up after the snow was removed or melted (very little to no damage)

Sorry for the last bit but, hey, I am the director of sales for the company.

Goggle-Eyed

I got a call Friday from Starkey Marina on Beaver saying that roofs on 2 of the docks collapsed Tuesday night / Wednesday morning. Reason I know is because my boat is in one of them.

[jay bird]

Good luck on your boat, I hope that the marina will be able to stay open. You will not find nicer people than the ones that run Starkey.

[RSBreth]

I hope everyone around all the Lakes (and on dryer ground) can pull through.

It looks like today and tomorrow will be the coldest, then warming up through the weekend, which will help. My in-laws live on Beaver Cove (between the two Cliftys') and have had a hell of a time. Lot's of trees down on all the gravel roads they drive to get out, and their generator went buggy, too. They'll be all right, my wife's step-dad is really handy and good at cobbling stuff together MacGyver style. They do have lot's of bottled water, a gas grill for cooking, and plenty of wood for the fireplace, too. Pumps off for water if the generators down so he has had to go down to the lake and haul up 5 gallon buckets of "flushin' water". That would be the worse, I think.

Too bad about Starkeys, I always fuel up there, and they are always super nice to me.

[LarryC]

Our power company, Ozarks Electric held a news conference today. All power might be restored in two or three weeks. I thought we had an ice storm...not a hurricane.

Lotsa folks are going for "flushin water"...fortunatly we are on rural water and they got a generator to handle the pump.

Gotta go...the generator is needing more go juice.