[Rhodes22-list] Major Ice Damage

[kroposki]

Hey Rummy,
	Didn't we have ice on the roads one day this winter?  Maybe now
is the time for Roger to move south?
                        Ed K

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Roger Pihlaja
Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 5:48 PM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Major Ice Damage

Hi Everybody,

Midland County, MI is under a flood warning due to the warm temperatures
& heavy rains the last couple of days.  Sanford Lake rose about 3 feet
in 5 hours today!  My neighbor said he saw the the ice floe that caused
the damage to our docks & boat lifts in the attached photos.  It was
about 100 yards X 50 yards & being pushed along by a 4-5 knot current!
He said this massive ice floe didn't even slow down when it tore thru
his pier & boat lift & my wharf & pier.  The sound accompanying this
event was also quite impressive!  I designed & built this wharf & pier
in the summer of 1983, using ice engineering procedures from the
Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering.  So, it was nearly 21 years old &
has never given a bit of trouble to this point.  The pilings were sunk 4
feet into the mud bottom in 300 lbs of concrete each and the pilings
were X-braced with thru-bolted steel U-channel in both the E-W as well
as the N-S directions.

As luck would have it, I happened to take some pictures down by the lake
about 1 month ago on Feb. 7, 2004 because of the unusually heavy
snowfall we had this winter.  I've included these shots as "before"
photos & then included the shots taken today from roughly the same
location & angle for comparison.  If you look closely at the photos
taken on 02/07/2004, you will be able to see some of the X-braced
thru-bolted steel reinforcing structure on the pilings on the piers,
because the lake level was very low this winter.

If you look closely at the "after" photos, you will see the 4 pilings
are still intact on the pier.  These pilings either sheared off at the
lake bottom or perhaps the ice floe pushed them, cement & all thru the
bottom to their present location.  If so, I may have 4 rather large
trenches in the lake bottom!  In any case, when the water warms up, I
will have a major project this spring and summer.  Just clearing away
the debris will be a nontrivial task.

I haven't been able to contact my homeowner's insurance agent, so I
don't know if my homeowner's insurance covers this sort of damage.  We
don't have flood insurance, so my expectation is we don't have any
coverage.  But, we'll see what our agent says.



Figure 1: Stairs & Pier Looking South On 02/07/2004
 


Figure 2: Stairs & Wrecked Pier Looking South On 03/06/2004



Figure 3: Stairs & Pier Looking NE On 02/07/2004



Figure 4: Stairs & Wrecked Pier Looking NE On 03/06/2004



Figure 5: Wrecked Wharf & Wrecked Harper's Pier & Boat Lift Looking
North On 03/06/2004



Figure 6: Wrecked Wharf & Pier Looking South From Harper's Stairs On
03/06/2004