storm of April 30, 1984 



A severe storm occurred over the Great Lakes on this date. A 

 fishing boat sank near the end of Long Point in Lake Erie, taking three 

 lives. Several sailboats moored at offshore buoys beside the La Salle 

 Park Marina broke their mooring lines and sunk or were badly damaged. 

 One of these breakaways became grounded on the 9-module— wide 

 southwest- facing section of FTB; the boat safely rode out the storm 

 without damage to itself or the FTB. 



Although the FTB was not equipped with measuring instrumenta- 

 tion during this storm, its performance was observed under these extreme 

 wave conditions. Environment Canada wind measurements at Hamilton 

 Airport, located 14 km south of La Salle Park, recorded a peak southwest 

 gust of 30.9 m/s at 1555 hours, with a corresponding one-minute average 

 speed of 21.6 m/s. At the L.B. Pearson (Toronto) International Airport, 

 the peak of the storm occurred at 1422 hours with a southwest gust of 

 27.8 m/s and a one-minute average speed of 19.6 m/s. Using the average 

 of these two one-minute speeds, 20.6 m/s, the resulting hindcast wave 

 conditions at La Salle Park are H^- = 1.0 m and Tp = 3.5 s. 



The FTB successfully rode out the storm without any apparent 

 damage. Minor damage occurred to the floating docks in two locations. 

 The FTB mooring system had been designed for waves of the magnitude and 

 period hindcast for this storm. However, the transmitted characteristic 

 wave heights were not expected to meet the standard of being less than 

 0.3 m. 



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