Picture in the Summer:
As seen today:
Posted on 01/11/2012 5:51:58 AM PST by thackney
An Alaska community blitzed by nearly 15 feet of snow was hit by another storm Tuesday and a new problem -- a shortage of shovels.
A spokesman for the city of Cordova said officials had tried Anchorage, Fairbanks and other cities and finally turned to a manufacturer for a special order.
"It's ironic, isn't it? The state of Alaska -- you'd think they'd be ahead of the game. It's those logistical things you just don't plan on, or you don't think is going to be an issue," said Allen Marquette by phone from the city on the east side of Prince William Sound.
The snow-weary city of 2,200 was promised new shovels to be manufactured Thursday and delivered two days later -- but it will be too late for the "couple more feet" of snow that touched down Tuesday, accompanied by winds of 25 to 40 mph and gusts to 55.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Picture in the Summer:
As seen today:
Etiam non princeps sed usque ad genua, Principis Pacis!
weight of snow collapse roof before it gets shoveled off:
Breaking news, Snow storm in Alaska in January! In other top stories, Arizona desert experiences long dry spell.
A shovel for 15 ft of snow? Might as well use a teaspoon.
A friend of mine’s parents are from there. They just say “oh a little snow it will melt”. Wow can’t even imagine.
On a metal roof it does not take much to slide snow. It is downhill, and the surface is smooth.
But when the snow pile matches the eve height, and the snow keeps coming....
That’s why two story houses with a door to the porch were invented.
Their office was on the second floor.
TABLE 7-1 GROUND SNOW LOADS, pg, FOR ALASKAN LOCATIONS
Town lb/ft2 (kN/m2 )
Cordova 100 (4.8)
18 ft. of snow is way over the design standards for the structures. Who would have ever thought they would get 18 ft. of snow? Hence the problem. It also depends on how wet the snow actually is.
Correct. That is another angle.
And snow blowers simply do not throw snot that high either.
After a ridiculous amount of wasted time, figures of density calcs and such, the Process Chief, who had been silent this whole time, spoke up and said the current snow load on his roof was exactly XX.X lbs/sq ft and he wasn't concerned (less than half of what should have been close to a limit).
We turned to him and said how do you know that?
He said yesterday he used a shovel, cut off 6” x 6” of snow, put it into a bucket and weighed it.
Sometimes engineers just make it hard. It's our nature.
If it rains and the snow gets wet before they get it off their roofs.....
To paraphrase crack-user, former “Mayor for Life” Marion Barry when confronted with why he was in the Virgin Islands “on official business” when WDC had an extreme snowstorm and the city was paralyzed “It’ll melt”.
How do they get their solar panels to work with all that snow on their roofs?
Yes, direct vs indirect measurement.
Shortest path is best, and generally more accurate.
Ha, doesn’t seem just like a lefty reporter to complain about people not having snow shovels; I can see this guy has never shoveled any snow. I bet we have a dozen broken snow shovel handles laying around, we just use them as stakes in the garden and buy a few more 40 dollar ones at AIH every fall when in town.
I believe that inspiration came from the invention of the two story outhouse.
Now that I think about it, I'd hate to be the first one to use the lower level once the snow had receded. Or the second, the third, etc...
During winter in Alaska, with just a few hours of indirect sunlight, assuming no mountains to the south, a few feet of snow doesn’t make much difference.
LOL! I'm married to one and he always looks at the most difficult solution first. Has boggled my mind for 35 years! (and yes, I'm envoking bragging rights as to the longevity of my marriage. I've earned it! :D)
Probably harder selling solar panels in Alaska than air conditioners.
From your PDF.
Whittier AK. 300 lb/ft!!!
From Wiki.
Whittier is a city in theValdez-Cordova Census Area, in the U.S. state ofAlaska.
Hard to believe Whittier is higher than Valdez.
Whittier gets about 257 inches per year of snow with a max of 401.
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ak9829
Valdez gets about 287 inches per year of snow with a max of 550.
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ak9686
Nobody really lives at Thompson pass ~25 miles east of Valdez but they average 552 inches of snow per year with a max of 974.
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ak9146
I can’t open the link...
See # 27.
Snowmobilers in the northeast would KILL for 10% of that on the ground right now...
I get the red X, I’ll try from home later. May be blocked at work.
Thanks
10%? Yes, so would the folks in Cordova.
100% and you can’t get the sled out of the shed.
It’s a picture of a shelter cabin with a deep snow tower entrance.
Now you dun gone and spoiled the surprise for me...
;-)
I don’t know the area so it meant nothing to me.
and 300 lb/ft is a huge standard for snow load.
Wonder if Cordova typically gets less snow than Whittier AK?
Reminds me of North Dakota last winter...
TNX
So much for those "shovel-ready" projects Obama promised.
thackney - funny how sometimes a moment like the one you described stays with us for a lifetime. Great story - thanks for sharing.
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After a ridiculous amount of wasted time, figures of density calcs and such, the Process Chief, who had been silent this whole time, spoke up and said the current snow load on his roof was exactly XX.X lbs/sq ft and he wasn’t concerned (less than half of what should have been close to a limit).
We turned to him and said how do you know that?
He said yesterday he used a shovel, cut off 6” x 6” of snow, put it into a bucket and weighed it.
Sometimes engineers just make it hard. It’s our nature.
Valdez gets about 287 inches per year of snow with a max of 550.
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ak9686
Cordova isn’t that far away, but they get about 117 inches per year of snow with a max of 261.
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?ak2177
This recent storm brought 42 inches of snow to the town. They didn’t get it all at once.
It has been surprising how that thought process has saved many, many hours over the decades.
414 inches since October 1st at Alyeska (Girdwood)
I’ve done a few projects with my Mechanical Engineer-Check that, University of Michigan Mechanical Engineer Brother in Law. One of them, he made so complex that to replace the bathtub plumbing fixture would have required removing a floor joist in the basement to do it his way. Finally, after listening to him drone on about how to do it, I said “just how many tub valves have you installed?” He replied “None.” I told him that I’ve done about a dozen of them and it’s time for him to get out of the way. In about 3 hours we were done.
Just gives Obama another excuse - not enough shovels!
I miss a lot of things from Alaska, cleaning snow out of the driveway isn’t one of them, not even with 8 hp, track driver blower I had.
Yeah but, you could buy one of these for your wife's birthday.
That's not a snow blower. This is a snow blower:
I believe they still use one of these in Alaska.
It'd likely be best to just build a snowshed for the driveway.
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