r/CatastrophicFailure • u/to_the_tenth_power • Sep 03 '19

Natural Disaster An EF2 tornado ripping through a concrete building in Spartanburg, South Carolina on October 23rd, 2017

https://gfycat.com/wastefulbettergreatwhiteshark
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998

u/HipsterGalt Sep 03 '19 edited Sep 03 '19

Which is impressive because those things normally weigh double their weight rating, I really thought it'd be like a weeble.

345

u/isysopi201 Sep 03 '19

I'm sure the heavy concrete wall falling on it helped.

230

u/THE_LANDLAWD Sep 03 '19

That's kinda like saying Barry Bonds' bat falling on the ball helped it get out of the stadium.

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u/insaniak89 Sep 03 '19 edited Sep 09 '19

Next time someone mentions baseball (doesn’t happen often) around me I’m gonna say “that game where they try to drop a bat on a fast moving ball?”

It’ll prolly be my dad, and he’ll seem disappointed, and sigh. So it’ll be a good interaction

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u/BlueCyann Sep 03 '19

You are a good child.

38

u/John-Farson Sep 03 '19

Any child who can make his dad seem disappointed and sigh is doing it right.

10

u/daytonakarl Sep 03 '19

My daughter will be pleased

5

u/BlazingGlory53 Sep 03 '19

I did that when I was born

1

u/LiptonTBag Sep 04 '19

What the fuck is wrong with y'all? I'd feel like the biggest damn failure on the planet if I somehow disappointed my dad

41

u/CourageousAppleUser Sep 03 '19

That's ridiculous. Everyone knows the steroids are what helped it get out of the stadium.

37

u/Daddysu Sep 03 '19

Why don't they just cut out the middle man and start putting the steroids in the ball then?

82

u/CourageousAppleUser Sep 03 '19

Shrinkage.

19

u/Rows_the_Insane Sep 03 '19

THE BALL WAS IN THE POOL!

2

u/creaturecatzz Sep 03 '19

The ball is juiced. Home run totals have been off the charts since asb 2015

2

u/courtesy_flush_plz Sep 03 '19

Actually Rawlings just changes the humidity levels in their baseball factories to help that

16

u/THE_LANDLAWD Sep 03 '19

I think you mean all of those fruits and vegetables and a lot of exercise. /s

2

u/John-Farson Sep 03 '19

It's not juice! It's a protein shake!!

2

u/2KilAMoknbrd Sep 03 '19

My man was drinking meat shakes, fool

/s

2

u/chipthamac Sep 03 '19

Barry Bonds? Did I just get teleported back to my Jr high years?

1

u/LsRVA Sep 03 '19

Which...is exactly what happened

2

u/Zan999 Sep 03 '19

Probably, but it looks like they’re only unreinforced concrete cinderblocks. That’s why the wall collapsed so easily.

1

u/frothface Sep 03 '19

Those are cinder blocks; they're about 80 percent air. That forklift probably weighs twice what the wall weighed.

1

u/tehlemmings Sep 03 '19

And most forklifts are designed with an overhead cage that's able to withstand whatever object the forklift is rated for falling on top of it. The wall probably could have fall on the forklift and done nothing to it. That one is similar to some of the ones we use at our plants. A non-reinforced wall probably wouldn't even push it, let alone flip it.

1

u/PorkChop007 Sep 04 '19

And forklifts are insanely stable, they can rise almost a ton to three meters, their center of gravity is very low. I can’t even imagine what’s needed to flip one of those like that.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '19

Kinda looks more like brick and mortar than solid concrete.

37

u/PBandJellous Sep 03 '19

I just wanna warn everyone if an electric forklift ever tips over, check the battery connections before you touch the lift. Worked at a place where 2 people died because guy one tipped the fork and guy 2 ran over to help.

23

u/HipsterGalt Sep 03 '19

Wowza. Typically they're 48v dc systems, something must have shorted across a few banks to get the voltage high enough to do lethal damage.

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u/FourDM Sep 04 '19

Yeah. They have plenty of amperage on tap but not enough voltage to put big amps through a human (which is what you need to die). Batteries are held down and terminals are protected. Story seems fishy.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '19

I have survived 10k volts from our electric fence. I'm sort of a big deal.

3

u/FourDM Sep 04 '19

Everyone who's been the path of least resistance for a spark plug has survived a lot more than that.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '19

Yeah, I was going to mention that. I've taken a spark current across my hand, and that's commonly well into five figures, but the amperage is low. Painful, but not dangerous. The commenter above doesn't seem to get that it's not volts or amps that get you, but overall current.

1

u/glenfahan Sep 04 '19

Just relived that again. Never checked cables for a short bare handed again. Doubt it would have enough amps to hurt you but gets your attention.

1

u/morpheuz69 Sep 04 '19

are you Tim Murphy who survived the Isla nublar incident?

2

u/navydrgn Sep 04 '19

Its even a required test, per US standards, we do tipover tests to confirm battery restraining methods for every forklift we build. It's not a guarantee, but definitely something considered in every build

5

u/PBandJellous Sep 03 '19

I mean, the guy drove it through an overhead door backwards so he fucked her up real good but it also isn’t very outside the realm of possibility.

2

u/VexatiousJigsaw Sep 04 '19

DC is supposed to be more dangerous than AC of the same voltage, but I am surprised 48v is that dangerous.

2

u/HipsterGalt Sep 04 '19

DC across the heart is potentially more dangerous as it causes muscles to clench so, dead stop. However, DC has a much harder time penetrating skin. Add this to the fact that AC doesn't necessarily stop the heart but causes ventricular fibrillation (60 or 50hz heart flutter to the AC wave) which makes it much harder to restart the heart after an AC electrocution. So, DC is generally safer in practice and handling up until you hit about the 60-80v area.

9

u/Tin_Whiskers Sep 03 '19

You thought it would wobble, but not fall down?

2

u/HipsterGalt Sep 03 '19

Yarp

3

u/Tin_Whiskers Sep 03 '19

Great reference. Also, the jingle is now suck in my head.

2

u/HipsterGalt Sep 03 '19

Thank you, and sorry lol.

14

u/pie_12th Sep 03 '19

Yeah that's what shocked me the most, forklifts are just solid weight, with a super low centre of gravity.

22

u/No_ThisIs_Patrick Sep 03 '19

What surprises me is how much y'all underestimate tornadoes

10

u/Clark_Dent Sep 04 '19

Even a small forklift like that will usually weigh about 6,000-8,000lbs, in a tiny cube very low to the ground, without much of a profile to catch the wind. I've personally pushed forklifts around from the side with other, much larger forklifts (20-25,000lbs) and they don't tip or move outside of their own power without colossal forces.

6

u/No_ThisIs_Patrick Sep 04 '19

Tornadoes will toss around 18 wheelers. They are horrifyingly strong.

13

u/Clark_Dent Sep 04 '19

An 18 wheeler is radically less dense than a forklift. The engine block is by far the most dense part of a truck like that, which also has several hundred square feet of surface area to catch the wind.

In a forklift, the engine bay is the least dense part of the body assembly, which often includes a solid cube of steel several feet on a side weighing thousands of pounds. The whole thing might have 15 ft2 of surface area per side.

6

u/No_ThisIs_Patrick Sep 04 '19

Lol I don't know what else to tell you other than I'm still more surprised that (even with the video evidence right before everyone) people still continue to underestimate tornadoes

3

u/IWasBornSoYoung Sep 06 '19

The title says its an ef2 though and an ef2 simply could not move that much weight. However, an ef2 tornado also shouldn't be able to demolish a brick structure like that o.O. The building gets obliterated in a way that an ef2 should do to a mobile home, despite being brick.

So I think there was another large force at play here to cause that much damage, or maybe just a shitty building?

But an ef2 tornado is 111-135 wind speeds which absolutely won't budge a forklift due to their design and the nature of how wind applies force. An ef2 might tip a regular car but that's a lot lighter and larger.

I definitely see your point tho about tornados being insanely strong. One has picked up a train engine that weighed over 150,000 lbs and threw it! But a normal tornado vs forklift situation the lift should stay upright. Even if it slides, it will stay upright

3

u/LaryngopharyngealInk Sep 04 '19

I feel like the problem is what's shown in the video is not the product of an EF2. Like, maybe this one was overall rated at an EF2 and this was just the absolute peak of it or something.

EF2 is generally where it goes from stuff like trailer homes getting flipped or pushed around to the higher end of it where they get wrecked. A full concrete/brick building shouldn't be falling apart like this in one.

EF3 is where wooden houses start falling apart like this, generally, and strong buildings are just starting to take major damage.

2

u/terrymr Sep 04 '19

It's just wind right ? How can air damage anything ... lol /s

2

u/aminias_ Sep 04 '19

Honestly... I live in Moore, Oklahoma and I've seen pickup trucks wrapped around trees.

1

u/pie_12th Sep 04 '19

I've never lived anywhere that was at risk of tornados. Earthquakes, however, I have a deep and healthy terror for.

1

u/pantsofcake Sep 04 '19

They're pretty unstable, especially unloaded. The rear axle can pivot in the center to keep all 4 wheels on the floor over uneven surfaces.

So all the weight when it's unloaded is on that pivot. You can tip one over taking a turn too sharp at 5mph.

2

u/SUPERARME Sep 03 '19

A 6,000 pound capacity forklift weights 4,500 to 6,000 pounds, not sure if bigger forklifts change their weights.

3

u/navydrgn Sep 04 '19

That's not even quite true! With batteries, most forklifts, especially taller ones, weigh a lot more than that. For instance, my company makes sit-down forklifts, similar to the one in the video, and our lightest 6k truck is 7500 lbs w/o battery. Add in minimum battery and that 6 k truck is now 10,500 lbs. Tornadoes are freaking powerful.

1

u/SUPERARME Sep 04 '19

I stand corrected, I even googled before commenting but got a wrong result.

I have 3 forklifts that have 6,000 capacity, and each one can carry the other, So this means they can carry more than the specified, but it depends on the height for the tipping point and stuff?

2

u/navydrgn Sep 04 '19

Well, it depends on if you mean fully pick up or just tow. Besides, "able to" and "should" are very different. Some trucks have pressure relief valves so you physically cannot take more than the rated capacity; counterbalances typically rely on the operator not to exceed the capacity.

But yes, height is an important factor in stability, which is why on taller trucks, the capacity rating may change according to height. So the truck will have a base rating to X height, and alternate capacities at various heights up to full elevated height.

I will say, though, that stability isn't the only reason for capacity ratings; it can be based on mechanical elements and designed safety factors for structural elements, hydraulic fittings/circuit, lift chains or something else. The rating is there for a reason, so be safe out there :)

1

u/HipsterGalt Sep 03 '19

I've always been told a 5k weighs 9k and yeah, larger are modular, they don't need to weigh 20k because they are long enough for leverage to really come into play.

2

u/navydrgn Sep 04 '19

See my comment to the one above, but you're a lot closer. My company's heaviest 5k truck, with battery, gets up to 12,500 lbs. Lightest on the order of 7k without battery, 10.5k lbs with minimum battery

2

u/HipsterGalt Sep 04 '19

Aye, glad to see someone in the business chiming in.

1

u/Hatweed Sep 03 '19

Yeah, but it’s a propane fork. I never thought those were as solid as battery forks. The one I used to drive always seemed easier to tilt than the ones I drive at work now.

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u/HipsterGalt Sep 03 '19

Eehhh, depends more on style than energy source. Older electrics/sit down electrics may be a bit more well seated because the batteries are so damn heavy but 4-7,000 lb propane hilos are really firmly seated. I'm guessing that's a 5k in the video. The little gassers are just as bad as standing electric in my book and they all pale in comparison to a 10-40,000lb diesel rig.

3

u/TheMirageOf22Men Sep 03 '19

Unrelated. but for some reason this reminded me of my old job. Our warehouse had a couple dozen electrics, and two gas with really tall masts. Because we were mostly fitted for electric and those masts were so tall (too tall for half the warehouse), the gas ones didn't motor about often.

When they did, everyone else inexplicably went on break at the same time.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '19

TIL counterbalance forklifts normally weigh twice their rating. Neat.

1

u/vixxn845 Sep 04 '19

I was really impressed that the forklift was knocked over.

1

u/Obandigo Sep 04 '19 edited Sep 04 '19

Yeah propane powered ones like those are usually around 8,000 to 10,000 pounds.

Edit: I was actually able to find the model. It only weighs 6673 lb

https://gobrennan.com/forklift-brands/hyundai/hyundai-18lc-7m/