Time to clear off roof and drains in Northern New England

[peakbagger]

The deep snow on some roofs and forecasted heavy rain with fast freeze up afterward makes for roof leaks and ice damming. The rain may eat some snow off the roof but what is left will be there for awhile.

This is a popular time of year for warehouse collapses, the roof drains fill up with leaves from the fall and the temps are cold enough for them to freeze up. The roof fills up with water and something lets loose.

 

[heat seeker]

I remember the Hartford Civic Center roof collapse. The roof trusses were defective, but the extra weight of snow and rain and clogged drains finished it off. IIRC, a basketball game had ended shortly before, so the seats were empty, or there would have been a catastrophe. It was back in 1978. There had been about 5000 people in there, and many would have been killed.

 

[peakbagger]

An excerpt from the forecast from Mt Washington for this afternoon and overnight

Gusts at this time look to be tapping into the 160s and 170s and some models are indicating that as a low-level jet passes, a few gusts could surpass 180 mph.

National Weather Service maps who 2 to 3 inches of rain in less than 12 hours.

 

[peakbagger]

I remember the Hartford Civic Center roof collapse. The roof trusses were defective, but the extra weight of snow and rain and clogged drains finished it off. IIRC, a basketball game had ended shortly before, so the seats were empty, or there would have been a catastrophe. It was back in 1978. There had been about 5000 people in there, and many would have been killed.

There is a chain of surplus and overstock stores in Maine called Mardens, they ended up with the basketball court floor from the civic center which apparently was removed and stored during the collapse. They reassembled it and used it in their Portland Maine store complete with all the court markings and logos. for years.

After that collapse there were a lot of big long span buildings that had to be retrofitted. A frequent failure up north are buildings designed to be heated that have a change of use to become unheated. The interior drain systems freeze up and then the clock is ticking for a failure.

 

[heat seeker]

Quite interesting! The floor was probably stored so they could make ice for an upcoming Whalers game. They'd remove the wood flooring, flood the floor with (I think) an inch or so of water (after painting the appropriate lines), freeze it, and play hockey. To use the arena for other uses, the ice was allowed to melt, and the water ran into tanks below the floor.

 

[PaulOinMA]

More recently, 2011 saw a lot of roof collapses in CT, including a church in Colchester.

 

[CaptSpiff]

Quite interesting! The floor was probably stored so they could make ice for an upcoming Whalers game. They'd remove the wood flooring, flood the floor with (I think) an inch or so of water (after painting the appropriate lines), freeze it, and play hockey. To use the arena for other uses, the ice was allowed to melt, and the water ran into tanks below the floor.

Could you have that backward? I vaguely recall a 1970's NYC school class trip to Madison Square Garden where the Facility guide showed us how the Basketball court was assembled on top of the Hockey ice. Long time ago.

OK, I dipped my toe in the interweb pool and here's a video of MSG. Good process don't need to change.

 

[heat seeker]

You are correct! But, there were times they melted the ice, as for expos, car shows, etc., where they didn't want traffic on the wood floor. I agree that they installed the wood floor right over the ice.

 

[semipro]

I was part of a team at work that put together the specs for our new server room.
We thought we had everything covered as far as resilience, steel mesh in the drywall, backup power, elevated wiring runways, etc. We even spec'd out high temp sprinkler heads to prevent water damage from the code-required sprinkler system (Halon was deemed an unacceptable risk to humans).
Years later we found out that the builder had routed a roof drain right through the center of the data center when a clog somewhere flooded the server room. Our planning paid off though as the damage was minimal due to the elevated power and data wiring.

 

[Don2222]

Looks pretty bad!
I remember everyone stuck on RT128 around Boston during that blizzard and had to abandon their cars to survive!