Wind fucking shit up?

[Homiesinheaven]

hi!

the virgins in my camp are hemming and hawing about rebar. can someone please post those pictures that go around of the tent flying away, the structure fucking up someone's car, etc.?

words dont seem to be working so maybe pictures will put the fear of God in them. thanks!

[phil]

Email today from a friend on the playa:
----quote-----
We had a 7 hour White Out yesterday ... gale force winds - seriously.
It's beautiful today - clear and hot, yes, but temp at night is comfortable, with some chilly strong winds breezing through rarely.

It's expected to cool down during the day this weekend....hotter for the first of next week.
----end quote--------

[mudpuppy000]

Let em find out the fun way.

[Homiesinheaven]

i quoted the blog today:

"Thursday afternoon, the dust was blowing so hard it hurt. Movement was impossible. The tents of a lot of veteran burners, people who’ve been doing this awhile and know the drill, got shredded. (Which made for interesting improvised sleeping arrangements, but that’s another story entirely.)"

but words arent working. pictures??? i cant fucking find them on this godforsaken board!

[phil]

They're Bob's photos, and he may already be out there. I'll check his site.

Here are photos from one year we were there:


from 2 of the vehicles damaged by a shade that wasn't secured. Somebody's Audi got badly scratched from the shade, but it wasn't as dramatic as the busted windows.

[some seeing eye]

[lambert13]

This one?

[FIGJAM]

Try playa wind nightmare stories.

[MedullaB]

I remember my first year thinking that the whole rebar thing was overkill meant to scare first time burners... I went with 16 inch rebar... during two pretty major windstorms I had to re-pound in the rebar that was holding our shade structure down as the wind was starting to pull them out! The wind there is no joke! But then again, it is kinda fun to sit and watch those unprepared folks staring at their collapsed structures, torn tarps and missing camp! :)

[some seeing eye]

[Homiesinheaven]

perfect. thanks guys!

SOON!!!

[phil]

This one?

That's the one I was thinking of.

On those busted windshields, I was thinking about how you'd drive back to Reno like that. But then I realized, we've all got goggles! Problem solved. Just kick that sucker out, put your goggles on, and hit the highway. We don't need no stinkin' windshield.

[Eric]

the virgins in my camp are hemming and hawing about rebar

Tell them "no rebar, no camping with us".

If they don't bring rebar (or the really long metal tent nails), don't let them camp with you. Don't let them camp downwind of you either.

Any virgin who won't listen to the advice of someone who has been there on something as basic as rebar has a strong chance of either flaking or melting down once they get there and the first whiteout hits.

[veleda]

i don't have a pic..but i do have a story.

In 2007, my friends and i had difficulties building our 32' dome. We 'decided' foolishly because we were tired that we would rebar it later in the week and wasn't that fucker heavy any how?

we had a severe wind storm and the dome lifted up and it took over 35 people standing on it during the storm to keep it down .. it was a nightmare..

[Iago]

Burning Man without an ass kicking white out gale, is like Christmas without snow.... and think about how much fun you'll have when you get to say "I told you so...."

[Spoonicus]

First post!

Do you see any problems with this picture? (Rebar not shown but it will be there to hold the tarp down..
This is primarily to keep the sun off the roofs of the vans since we'll be sleeping in them during the day. Am i going to cook regardless of the shade?
Would you recommend guy-wires?

[phil]

> First post!

Try posting a new thread since you're asking for advice and not commenting on the wind and disasters that have happened.

Use a snappy title like "Will this tarp work to shade 2 RVs?" You'll get much more attention in your own thread.

[theCryptofishist]

This one?

That's the one I was thinking of.

On those busted windshields, I was thinking about how you'd drive back to Reno like that. But then I realized, we've all got goggles!

Speak for yourself! Maybe I haven't tried hard enough, but I"ve never had goggles that worked for me. I guess I didn't feel the need.

[C.f.M.]

1. ....I didn't use rebar last year, and I was fine...

2. I loved, loved, loved my googles and dust mask, I was walking around full-on in the white outs. It was a very new and strange experience...that I'd rather NOT do, but still. It was pretty cool.

3. I should probably delete 1 before the universe sees it.

[Antranik]

First post!

Do you see any problems with this picture? (Rebar not shown but it will be there to hold the tarp down..
This is primarily to keep the sun off the roofs of the vans since we'll be sleeping in them during the day. Am i going to cook regardless of the shade?
Would you recommend guy-wires?

Dude that is NOT going to work... unless you have a grommet maker and have created a hundred extra grommets and hooked them ALL somehow evenly to hundreds of rebar stakes.... that's going to catch SO much air and the wind is not going to let up, it's going only get stronger and stronger, and stronger, and that shit is all going to snap and you're going to hurt somebody when it goes flying in the air. I had a setup like this in 2008 where my tarp was draped over cars, and on wednesday the winds decided to finally arrive and test our structure coincidentally when i was on the come up of 10 magical pieces of paper and i was alone at the camp.... oh boy was that fun!!! When the tarp lifted, the seating area underneath looked amazing, like it was a high rise ceiling shade structure, I will never forget those hours, haha... i had the most amazing time grappling with nature, and it was scary as fuck. The only way I was able to eventually secure PART of the tarp was by having someone hold onto a section, and I drive over the tarp with a car, hahaha yes. disaster.

conclusion: don't do your tarp over the RV idea. the tarp makes a good floor though, lol.

[geospyder]

Last year, which was a mild year for wind, we had a parachute that had one side anchored to the railing on top of an RV. At one point it broke the railing.

[jagermonster]

carport shade structure from 2 years ago, didn't get rebar'd. here's my car afterwards.

chick was nice though, and paid for the windshield.

[justfred]

carport shade structure from 2 years ago, didn't get rebar'd. here's my car afterwards.

chick was nice though, and paid for the windshield.

Same thing happened at our camp, plus a dent, but it was a guy with a rental car who'd bought insurance for just such a calamity.

[AntiM]

I didn't get a picture, but we were watching a group of new Hushers put up a carport. They got it up, turned around to get the rebar, and poof! over it went onto its roof. Looked like a beetle on its back.

[Ugly Dougly]

I didn't get a picture, but we were watching a group of new Hushers put up a carport. They got it up, turned around to get the rebar, and poof! over it went onto its roof. Looked like a beetle on its back.

Lesson 1: Secure your carport skeleton before rigging the skin.

[MedullaB]

Did anyone else see the multi colored umbrella that got taken by a twister then did the Mary Poppins thing about 300 ft in the air for about 10 blocks??

Think it started at about 3:00 and F and came back to earth down around the perimeter!

One of my favorite '10 moments! :D

[SnowBlind]

Did anyone else see the multi colored umbrella that got taken by a twister then did the Mary Poppins thing about 300 ft in the air for about 10 blocks??

Yes we did, and it was absolutely amazing. We never saw it come down, it was just hovering, absolutely stable in the air, going slowly down the city.

Wind creating art, almost.

[Trishntek]

During the blow on opening Monday, we had our shade structure up. The system held, but the cheap tarps demonstrated their value. All the corners had to be reinforced and extra ropes over the top to control the load on the tarps edges.

I now see the value of good tarps. And also plan to use bungee balls for better distribution of the load.

Overall, by Monday strike, it was ready. I do not think it would have lasted another stiff blow. Sunday demonstrated the tarp weaknesses once again. But for a 30' x 64' shade structure, it kicked ass all week long for a comfortable burn. Our activity shelter under the shade structure held firm and was priceless protection where we could still party during the worst of the winds.

[Trishntek]

I didn't get a picture, but we were watching a group of new Hushers put up a carport. They got it up, turned around to get the rebar, and poof! over it went onto its roof. Looked like a beetle on its back.

Lesson 1: Secure your carport skeleton before rigging the skin.

Well,,,, duh!

We used 4' T=posts and wrapped the shit out of them with duct tape on our portable garage. I was concerned they might not come out too easily, but one man could extract them with wiggling and a steady pull.

The auger stakes, dog stakes and 12" nails on our guy lines and ropes also held firm. We also used T-posts inside our 1 5/8" poles to stabilize the bottoms.

[geekster]

We had our camp rental pots in a small shade structure (8 x 10, I think). Had rebar driven and the legs of the structure duct taped to the poles. Thursday pre-event wind was so strong that it blew the structure and the pots over. The rebar ripped through the tape on the windward side and the rebar on the back two legs just bent right over like they were nothing. The rear of the structure was still taped to the rebar but the bar was now bent 90 degrees. We set everything back up and added guy lines from the top to the ground. Just rebar isn't enough with a gale blowing.

All other structures in camp weathered the wind well.