About 10:30 Wednesday night (8/23), a thunderstorm with straight line winds in
excess of 70 mph moved through Mexico. The storm took down our KXEO tower, which
was also home to the microwave system that feeds the KWWR 1,203' tower. As the
KXEO tower came down, it also knocked the top section off the microwave tower
that feeds our 1,035' KWWR tower site as well as electric lines feeding our
studio building.. The KXEO tower was 403' feet tall, and was erected in 1966
when KWWR first went on the air. The tower just barely hit the northeast corner
of our studio building and there was some damage to cars in the parking lot from
breaking guy wires, but fortunately no one was injured.
We worked Wednesday night and most of Thursday to restore the KXEO signal.
We have installed a temporary long wire antenna for KXEO to get us back on
the air. With great help from the community, the area broadcast community,
and many friends, we got back on the air around 9:10 Thursday evening (8/24), or
about 22 1/2 hours after the storm took down the tower.
Our heartfelt thanks goes to all who worked very hard to get us back on the air.
-Gary and Anne
Here are some looks at the
aftermath on Thursday morning.
This is from where the top of the tower ended up, looking
back toward the building. The satellite dish in the center of the
picture was destroyed. The roof of the our generator shed was also
damaged, as was the short microwave tower in the center of the
picture. This view is to the northwest.
Here's a closer look at where the tower fell on the
generator shed. The tower also fell across the electric lines
between the utility pole and the building.
Here's a look up at the microwave tower. The top
half of the tower was ripped off by the larger tower falling. Two
microwave antennas and several smaller communications antennas had been
located on this tower.
Here's a view to the northwest from in back of the studio
building. The bottom part of the tower fell in a zig-zag fashion,
with the top 200 or so feet falling straight out.
In the foreground is where the tower buckled then fell to
the southeast. The portion in the foreground went about a foot into
the ground.
Here's a view to the south from the tower base.
We had two utility poles placed adjacent to the old tower
base, then ran a wire between the poles to make a long wire antenna to get
KXEO back on the air.
