When the wind blows

We know about the power of the sea but the power of the wind is sometimes hard to believe. When Typhoon Maemi hit Busan in 2003, the port found with that it was possible for the wind to lift container cranes out of their storm pin sockets, albeit by the highest wind speed ever experienced in that part of the world. There is now news of a container crane being blown over backwards in the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific. I recall that in 1976 in the Dundalk Terminal in Baltimore, a container crane with its boom up was hit face on by a local Chesapeake Bay squall and collapsed on itself. But this new incident was with the boom down Ð or at least that is what a recently seen photograph shows.

At the time of writing there is news of another such crane being destroyed by a tornado in the Bahamas. All of this prompts me to draw readers' attention, once again, to the immensely useful and practical WindStorm II booklet produced and sold jointly by TT Club and ICHCA International. I do not exaggerate in saying that every terminal should have a copy.