Looking for videos of dust storms and accidents

[AntiM]

Our clamshell, bare bones, half of our set up. One chunk of rebar for each leg, eight total.

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We use two, facing each other, with camo netting shade in between to make a living room. An EZ up frame without the canopy holds up. The tents and the kitchen are under the carports. This is a King Canopy carport from Sam's Club, 2003, very heavy. No pins to hold it together, just roof tension. We did replaced a few of the poles last year, they're not all that expensive and the company is in North Carolina (South?).

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The shorty legs are more to protect the pole end than for headroom. You can make shorty legs from wood, or just a cap or pad to protect the end of the pole and so it doesn't fill up with playa. Cardboard and duct tape will do the trick. An abundance of caution.

[captain mcguiver]

Clamshell- Although I must say it looks cool what is the benefit for essentially pulling 4 legs out from a perfectly good carport?

I've had no trouble with Carports over the years, I assume the Clamshell is some attempt at making it more sturdy?

I usually use 2' rebar on every post, and duct tape the rebar to the pole. I also sometimes duct tape the joints (leaving a flap for easy removal). I can't think of a time in 9 years where I ever put a guy line on a Carport. Maybe one or two lines total, ever.

Never had one break, or even begin to fly away.

[theCryptofishist]

I preferred the airiness of AntiM's clamshell to the somewhat disreputable darkness of my own carport.

[FIGJAM]

[AntiM]

Clamshell- Although I must say it looks cool what is the benefit for essentially pulling 4 legs out from a perfectly good carport?

I've had no trouble with Carports over the years, I assume the Clamshell is some attempt at making it more sturdy?

I usually use 2' rebar on every post, and duct tape the rebar to the pole. I also sometimes duct tape the joints (leaving a flap for easy removal). I can't think of a time in 9 years where I ever put a guy line on a Carport. Maybe one or two lines total, ever.

Never had one break, or even begin to fly away.

Purely personal preference. MyLarry intensely dislikes the duct tape set up, doesn't trust it as far as he thinks a good windstorm could throw it. The full standing carport did shudder more in the wind when we did that way, tore the hell out of the end walls in 2004. The clamshell is rock solid for us. Aerodynamics, the wind flows over it rather than slams into the sides. And we never have to mess with sidewalls now, although we can install one rolled up along the top of the long legs in case of rain.

Also makes our cozy shade configuration easier to manage, making three tent bedrooms, a dressing area, a kitchen and a living room. We use the X ropes as a base for privacy curtains too, it is all very functional. Lots of air flow in the middle shade area.

To each their own. We've had the carports for nine years, been happily clamshelling for seven. And we have spare legs if we ever need them.

[Bob]

Not many people shoot post-mortem pics. That big Emerald City thing in 2001 had a pretty spectacular partial failure when the winds kicked up mid-week, green shade cloth wrapped around flimsy prism frames of 1/2" EMT strapped to a few tiers of scaffold, but the only pics I can find show it standing more or less straight. A snorkel-lift operator w/ DPW got distracted for a day or two helping them stabilize the fucker.

[AntiM]

Someone's very nice ex-flagpole.

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[Bob]

That may have had some drunk art car driver help.

Always amusing when people ask about flagpoles.

[Stickygreen]

http://youtu.be/xlsAnADIpTI

year -2007
location - 2 O'clock and aproximatly F

[Stickygreen]

oh, BTW.... the [YOUTUBE] short code fucking sucks!

[Eric]

oh, BTW.... the [YOUTUBE] short code fucking sucks!

After you click the "share" button, there an "option" link right under the short url. Click that, choose long url (make sure you're at 0:00 or the video will start somewhere later in) and your done. The youtube link on here will only work with the long url.

[steve.t.sullivan]

Well all this stuff about Condition Alpha scared me shitless. I'm thinking maybe I'll rig up netting a-frame style instead of a solid tarp.

[BoyScoutGirl]

Well all this stuff about Condition Alpha scared me shitless. I'm thinking maybe I'll rig up netting a-frame style instead of a solid tarp.

They make camouflage and reflective netting for just such purposes.

To replace tarps, not to scare people shitless.

[steve.t.sullivan]

Well all this stuff about Condition Alpha scared me shitless. I'm thinking maybe I'll rig up netting a-frame style instead of a solid tarp.

They make camouflage and reflective netting for just such purposes.

To replace tarps, not to scare people shitless.

Plus for shading a tent I would bet it has the advantage of requiring no additional rigging, since it already permits air flow.

[JovReef]

We are having the same problem with a camp mate, she insists on bringing a shade tent that she set up last year (that broke LAST YEAR). Our response 'If you bring it, we are throwing it away at a gas station along the way and you won't have any shade'

Problem solved.

[theCryptofishist]

But last year it was such a wimpy break. This year it would be totally epic!

[Hoolie]

From 2007. I believe this structure used to be dome shaped.

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[vaddynwashere]

holy crap.
unimaginable.

[maladroit]

People who build domes should not be trying to save money. You have to at least build it with the assumption that people will climb it.

[pink]

Maladroit, that's wind damage.

It's Thunderdome. *facepalm*. It has people climbing all over it all the time.

I wish I had the double facepalm photo, but I'm on my phone

[BBadger]

Maladroit, that's wind damage.

It's Thunderdome. *facepalm*. It has people climbing all over it all the time.

I wish I had the double facepalm photo, but I'm on my phone

I'll see your double face palm, and raise you another.

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[Charlie Parker]

http://afterburn.burningman.com/11/

Participants making the trek out to Black Rock City were rewarded with as hard-packed a playa surface as we've seen since 1996, and consistently glorious weather throughout the event week with nary a single whiteout the entire time (a warning to first-timers: this is NOT normal).

[Rice]

http://afterburn.burningman.com/11/

Participants making the trek out to Black Rock City were rewarded with as hard-packed a playa surface as we've seen since 1996, and consistently glorious weather throughout the event week with nary a single whiteout the entire time (a warning to first-timers: this is NOT normal).

Dust storm last night (Aug 14, 2012) - winds 50+ MPH. Serious dust. Storms every evening.

Wind so strong, it was messing up DPW shade structures!! The same shade design that survived the storms in 07, 08 & 09...

This is going to be an interesting burn. If 2011 was your first burn, you are in for a surprise.

[dragonpilot]

http://afterburn.burningman.com/11/

Participants making the trek out to Black Rock City were rewarded with as hard-packed a playa surface as we've seen since 1996, and consistently glorious weather throughout the event week with nary a single whiteout the entire time (a warning to first-timers: this is NOT normal).

Storms every evening.

What's their duration? I don't mind the storms per se, but after a 12-hour continuous blow, I get a LITTLE stir-crazy.

[FIGJAM]

Then stir something or stop stirring, whichever the case may be!

[Rice]

Storms every evening.

What's their duration? I don't mind the storms per se, but after a 12-hour continuous blow, I get a LITTLE stir-crazy.

My GF says they last 2-4 hours on average.

Tonight (before sunset) she got lost walking from a trailer to her tent. It should have been a 100 foot walk. She basically realized something was wrong when she ended up at the man base instead of her tent. Took her an hour get to her tent. Serious dust folks...

Last night, she witnessed a DPW shade structure get pulled out of the ground (4x4 posts buried about 4 feet deep). This is the DPW design that survived the 07 & 08 storms, so there should have been no problem.

These storms are not to be taken lightly. If you are properly prepared, you will be fine. If 2011 was your first burn, please, for your own and others safety, talk to a multi-year veteran to see if your plans are reasonable...

[trilobyte]

+ 7 or 8 thousand to what @stretch80 just said, but I'd extend that to anyone whose first year was in the last 3 years.

[Bob]

Pics or it didn't happen. DPW's gone a little soft since I was in charge of shade.

Weather cycles over 3-6 days. Wait and it'll be different.

That dome eggshelled because the struts were too skinny for their length. (Ahem, that's not the T-dome.)

[Rice]

Pics or it didn't happen. DPW's gone a little soft since I was in charge of shade.

Weather cycles over 3-6 days. Wait and it'll be different.

That dome eggshelled because the struts were too skinny for their length. (Ahem, that's not the T-dome.)

She was a little busy to take pictures. I'll be on-playa this Saturday. Hopefully the wind is a little less intense. Having said that, I must assume it won't be and plan appropriately.

I have no reason to doubt what she says. Why would she tell me it was bad if she didn't want me to worry??

I see no changes in the DPW shade structure design since 08, am I missing something??

[Desert_Rat]

This is sounding less and less appealing. Seriously. And I've been doing hard core desert camping for over twenty years...but 40+ MPH winds every day and white outs with less than 100' visibility, combined with projectiles and shrapnel flying around, sounds challenging at best. Any online source for daily first-hand playa condition reports? Am planning to wait for the live video feed from Camp Envy once the event starts and then will assess whether or not I'm going, but am keenly interested in more preliminary information like the reports in this thread, thanks.