An early December ice storm did more than cause a few power outages across central and eastern North Carolina.
In 1989, an early December winter storm left snow across western sections of North Carolina and a glaze of ice over central and eastern sections.
The ice storm moved through the area on Friday afternoon, Dec. 8. We had two days of freezing rain that put a glaze of ice on almost everything and loaded tons of ice onto two 2,000-foot TV towers and the supporting guy wires just southeast of Raleigh.
The three-year-old towers held steadfast until Sunday morning when sunshine warmed the south and east sides of the towers and guy wires, helping them shed some of the heavy ice.
The north and west side of the towers remained stressed under the weight of ice.
As huge chunks of ice fell off the guy wires, high amplitude, low frequency oscillations occurred, which caused guy wire failure, and the two towers to collapse within 30 minutes of each other.
A third 2,000-foot TV tower nearby survived, but the antenna at the top whipped over 30 feet back and forth.
Ultimately, people replaced the two towers with the same type of tower that withstood hurricane Hugo in Charleston in September of the same year.
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