September 22, 2011
Iowa
Iowa
Extreme high winds came through in a front with storms and rain at the end of August. Places over the northern part of the state along the border with Minnesota had corn blown flat to the ground in stretches a mile wide and miles long over the prairie like a steam roller went over them, covering an area half the width of the state. Limbs and trees were blown down all over the place and many outbuildings were damaged also over certain areas.
Shown in these images is damage from high winds that were about 130 MPH or better that hit the blades in gusts and the subsequent oscillation in the high wind shattered the blades. One mill has the blade shattered and the tip blown off; and another has the blade split and is hanging and swaying, ready to blow off in the upcoming high winds that ensue into October. That’s several tons of shattered fiberglass and framework hanging up there on strands that will cut loose and scatter over the area as debris and hazardous pollution to the earth.
There’s no way that they can come and repair it. The crop is in the way. The 100 ton 500 foot nacelle crane crushes the drain tiles in the fields and the smaller crane that’s 400 feet cannot be deployed onto the road and fields and take the blades down with the crop there, since it will lay down on top of all that corn. So it just sits there.
Absolutely NO local coverage was performed by any newspapers or TV or Radio !! This state has a “Gag Order” on all and any negative coverage of wind farms. When the wind farm opened, it was on the front page of the papers, and on the TV news.
Anonymously reported by local residents who wish they would all blow apart like this.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/09/22/wind-turbine-blades-destroyed-by-wind/