Record Snow Fall


 
LMichaels said:
In the winter it's generally warmer by the lake (unless on the rare occasion it has frozen over)
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I should take some pictures tomorrow of the lake from the 65th floor, ( if i go in)
The last few weeks the lake has definitely been frozen, as far as the eye can see. I'm right next to the docks on the Chicago River and the Ice breakers have been running.

Tim
 
Oh yeah I've seen it plenty especially back in the ice ages before so called "global warming". We did have a colder spell in the 50's and 60's and I regularly remember the lake frozen. I wish I had the cameras we have today back in 1967. Here is some of the brutality of a Chicago winter. At only 7 years old McMormick Place burned to the ground primarily because the snow and ice on LSD was so thick from the great blizzard the fire dept could not get equipment there. I remember driving by this later that winter. What a horrible mess. I still remember going to Auto Shows with my uncle/goomba before this happened
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I was 9 back then and we lived in Mckinley Park when the blizzard hit. Uncle was a carpenter and worked the trade shows, he always got passes to take us to the auto or boat shows.
That was the housewares show and he said the fire was caused by someone running an unproperly sized extension cord to run one of the exhibits.
Years later while serving my apprenticeship we did a show for Bob Villa and This old House at MC place. Back then, and to this day, you still can't plug in an extension cord until a Electrician checks it out.

Tim
 
Yep that is what they came up with. Not sure how given the amount of destruction. Maybe it was just the IBEW trying to sink their influence a little deeper. It was sure a mess that's fo sho :D
 
The union aspect isn't limited to Mccormick Place. That's the case in most major metro convention centers for electricians, plumbers, etc. Heard a tale years ago about a convention center show in New York, the booth had a hot tub that needed to be filled. 1 hose, and a relatively short amount of time, and they got charged something like $175 for a plumber to make a single hose connection and turn a single valve.

I'll be the last person to argue against the safety aspect, though.
 
We talked about that alot when I was doing my 12 week pre-apprentice training at Washburne trade school.
While the cord was probably the main cause of the fire, the lack of sprinklers, fire rated walls and doors and no fire proofing on the steel beams in the exhibit hall added to the collapse.
Steel get's hot and it will bend under it's own weight, add a roof load, and you have a disaster.
Most of the fire hydrants were not hooked up and Chicago FD had to pump lake water from an already frozen lake.

Mistakes were made by architects, engineers and local building and fire codes.
But they learned from it.

Tim
 
"Steel get's hot and it will bend under it's own weight, add a roof load, and you have a disaster."

Yep something the 9/11 conspiracy theorists still fail to realize or think about
 
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