JANUARY 2005 ICE STORM IN EAST-CENTRAL INDIANA |
by radio station engineer Sean Mattingly of WLBC / WERK / MAX / WHBU / WXFN
Formal Disaster Proclamation from 1/5/05
DELAWARE COUNTY LOCAL EMERGENCY PROCLAMATION City of Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana
AUTHORITY Whereas, the City of Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana due to several thousand of downed power lines, downed trees, and flooded roads, have decided to declare a state of emergency. The Mayor of Muncie and Delaware County Commissioners are requesting all citizens to stay off the streets to protect yourself from the potential of electrocution from more than 3,000 downed power lines. The Mayor of Muncie and Delaware County Commissioners have imposed this ban until 6:00 a.m. Friday January 7, 2005. Extended until 6:00 on Saturday January 8th, Travel restrictions are no longer in effect, however residents are still urged to remain off the streets. This emergency declared by the Mayor of Muncie and the Delaware County Commissioners is to restore utilities and public services as quickly as possible. The Mayor of Muncie and Delaware County Commissioners have also asked area law enforcement agencies to enforce Indiana statutory law and may make arrests to expedite the restoration of services and utilities to the community. If individuals impede emergency services, or utility companies, arrest may occur to aid these restoration efforts. The Mayor of Muncie and Delaware County Commissioners are asking that all citizens stay home unless it is an extreme emergency. In witness, whereof, we have hereunto set our hand this 5th day of January, 2005 <Signature, Tom Bennington> <Signature, Dan Canon> <Signature, Wm Gosnell> |
Above is a scene with the WERK 104.9 tower in the distance. Due to
heavy ice loads, trees are split and cracked, everywhere. AEP power company
rents space on this tower from WERK. Their power generator failed, so they
had to hardwire in a backup backup generator.
Many residents were going to hardware stores looking for a source of
backup power. We couldn't find a big generator anywhere in
town to power the radio stations with. Borrowed a shaky 1970's generator.
Ran the 50,000 watt station WLBC on this little generator at 62 watts for
a while. It was better than nothing! Behind it is a brand
new generator purchased from Sam's club in Indy that turned out to be defective.
Couldn't start it. It had an electrical failure, with no spark at the sparkplug!
Aargh.
1/6/05 - On backup power with only a handful of electronics
plugged into a small generator via extension cords. The WLBC morning show
was broadcast from the Newsroom in the dark. Above is Steve Lindell and
Tom Hammond working by the light of one 60-watt bulb. They began the show
hours early. 115,000 Muncie-area customers without power due to ice overloading
power lines in multiple counties.
Working in the cold studio, Steve is trying to make me laugh. Later
that morning, the Muncie mayor walked through our dark building to find
us broadcasting from the small newsroom. He was interviewed, giving crucial
information about a city and countywide state of emergency. WTHR-TV
Channel 13 flew over the radio towers and showed all the heavy ice coating
the towers. They reported that we were "the only radio station in
the area" that was able to stay on the air during the power outage with
all the ice.
The WERK van parked at WLBC with a flooded yard in the background.
The trees looked neat with all the ice on them. I measured 3/4 of
an inch of ice on top of the tower's guy wires.
That night, a very determined Leland Franklin decides he needs
to do an emergency show from the WHBU transmitter shack on Ridge Road in
Anderson. Only problem was, the power was out at the transmitter. Leland
called me on my cellphone. I was delirious after working for 36 hours straight.
Leland said he was GOING to do a show from the transmitter shack. I still
don't know how Leland and the mayor were able to demand that the Anderson
power utility to get the power back on there. Within 40 minutes, they had
power on, and Leland was on the way there with my key and an armload of
remote gear. They did a show till 11pm.
Since the Daleville studio building for WERK / MAX / WHBU was without
power, I went around to the transmitter sites that did have power and setup
a simulcast of WLBC. At one point we had built a network of simulcast stations
including WERK, WHTI and WHBU, all taking programming from WLBC. I had
to visit each transmitter building to rig up radios and temporary wire
antennas to do that.
1/7/05 - Next day, a "great" day of adversity I'll never
forget. The WHBU morning show with Leland Franklin and Brett Busby standing
in the transmitter shack which is in a field down the road from a junkyard.
Leland and his "mall studio" board ops and I were standing in a circle
in the doorway of the small shack. We were taking turns updating listeners
on storm damage and places to get shelter and supplies. During the show,
I wired up a telephone interface box and we were able to take calls on
the show! We had to give out the unlisted number for the transmitter building
over the air to do it. Oh well, it sounded good. People showed up at the
site to bring food, and get on the radio with emergency information. The
morning show lasted till 11am, before joining up with WLBC's simulcast
- which by this time included 4 of our stations being called a "Severe
Weather Network". After hearing the improvised WHBU morning show, a competing
radio engineer stopped by the WHBU transmitter shack to ask Leland and
I how we did it.
At about noon that day, the power came back on at the Daleville studios,
and I was able to return 5 radio stations to normal programming.
On the way home that evening, I drove through Blackford County to the
Hartford City transmitter site of WHTY. The roads were especially
slick in that county. The transmitter building door was covered with
a very thick coating of ice. It took me about ten minutes to chip
away enough ice to get the door open. The doorknob was as large as
a grapefruit. Below is a photo of a fence in Anderson which is coated
with ice.
1/8/05 - There were 72,000 Muncie customers without power.
1,400 extra power company employees on the job from many states. National
Red Cross sets up headquarters in Muncie.
While I was at work Saturday, icy tree limbs fell at home in Anderson.
Parts of this new fence got squashed.
1/9/05 - About 56,500 customers continued to lack electricity. The blackout Sunday included 46,500 customers in the Muncie and Hartford City areas, 4,000 in the Marion and Elwood areas, and 6,000 in the Winchester and Portland areas. More than 1,500 power company workers in 444 crews are rebuilding the damaged power system and cutting and removing fallen trees. The extra crews have come from South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Michigan and northern Indiana.
In the year that followed: The radio station management
decided to install more backup power generators for the 7 locally-run stations.
To better serve the public, a large generator was added at WLBC which can
power the whole building automatically. The next year the Daleville
studios of 5 stations WERK / WURK / WHTI / WHTY / WHBU got a whole-building
generator. In 2008, WHTY's Hartford City transmitter site got a generator
as well.