You wanna watch this...

micaelb

Well-known member
Lots of ice then snow in Des Moines this weekend. One of our crews was shooting a bite with a firefighter and then all hell breaks loose.

Lee Rouse shot it, Jon Cahill is the reporter.

www.whotv.com

Scroll down to the video portion and select "13 Raw Camera catches transformer explosion"

This will make you look up when you park your live truck!
 

Chicago Dog

Well-known member
Holy freaking crap! Those guys gotta be thanking their lucky effing stars. Anyone could've been standing under that line when that happened.

Crazy crap happens during ice storms -- be careful out there!
 

woodsiecam

Well-known member
wow

GREAT STUFF!!! (especially since no one was hurt) Wish I was up there for this storm.

btw, look close at the video... about a halfsecond before the flash, a wave-like distortion moves across the power lines. THAT IS WILD!!! Anyone know what that is? Is it air being distorted by the electromagnetic field? Never seen that before. Very cool.

Great job by Lee keeping it all in frame.

KEEP IT UP!

- Woodsie
 

Chicago Dog

Well-known member
Anyone know what that is?
Actually, that's an ice-coated branch falling onto the powerline, which is what caused the entire mess in the first place.
:)

Aside from causing a lot of power arcs, ice storms tend to add tremendous weight to branches and limbs. They come crashing down a lot more easily (such as that video up there), and cause some pretty dangerous situations.

The majority of power outages are because of falling branches after an ice storm.
 

Dan R.

Well-known member
Great video!

If you look closely, you can see the tree limb falling onto the lines just before the flash. By the way - this wasn't a 'transformer explosion', but live power lines touching each other due to a falling branch. (Most storm-related power flashes are unrelated to transformers, although the term is pretty universally applied that way.)
 

TXTechPhoto

Well-known member
Reminds me of when I use to live in Des Moines back in the early 90's maybe late 80's when we had that big ice storm. We ran that last night, thanks sister station :). We had a similar thing happen with power lines arching due to 50mph winds in the OKC on Saturday.(not near as cool as yals)
 
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sierra-zulu

Active member
Not only a good reason to look up and live.... but a good reason to carry a miner's hardhat (small brim so they are easier to use with a video camera) in your vehicle so you don't get beaned by the stufff hitting your head....
 

woodsiecam

Well-known member
Actually, that's an ice-coated branch falling onto the powerline, which is what caused the entire mess in the first place.
:)
Ha... that's what I get for watching it in lo-res.

Hey Michael, how hard are you guys getting hit by this next system? More ice or snow? Hopefully this system doesn't hit you guys as hard.

I was on the clock till 2am last night chasing the tornado that hit south of KC. It was hands-down the worst storm chasing conditions I've ever been in... 1) The storms hit after dark, 2) We were coming from the north side of it, 3) It was in rural Kansas, so we had no cell service. And it was impossible to get to most of the damage because power lines were down over every road we tried.

Luckily, no deaths with this one. Sounds like southern Missouri wasn't as lucky.

- Woodsie
 

micaelb

Well-known member
This storm is worse as far as wind and blowing snow with whiteouts, stranded travelers, interstates closed. There was even a teacher hit by lightning.
The rain Thursday melted all the ice off the trees and power lines, at least around here. That was a blessing. There are still some power outages but not nearly as many as there could have been.
We've had a crew in Fort Dodge since Wednesday. They're hoping to get out of there by tonight if the winds calm down.
The worst part was our entire station computer network went down Thursday morning, including the Avid stuff. By afternoon we could edit then play to tape then ingest in another Avid that we could play to air from. I was happy to be out doing a live shot!
It's nice to have some real news this time of year.
 
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