Cell Tower News: Vandals and storms wreak havoc

by Jarad Matula March 25, 2016

written by Jarad Matula March 25, 2016

Vandals fell Canadian tower

Cell towers, as large outdoor structures, can be the subject of brutal force by both man and nature. First, a Telus tower near Oliver, British Columbia, was completely downed due to actions by vandals. According to local authorities, the 150-foot tower was felled with “willful damage” since no copper wires or any other tower equipment was stolen from the site. The other head scratcher in this case was the vandals had to work hard to be this destructive as the cell tower is atop Fairview Mountain, meaning someone could only access the tower by walking/climbing up to it, using an all-terrain vehicle or flying in with a helicopter.

“The sole intent of the suspects was to damage the tower,” Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said. “The actual motives or who or why, that remains unclear.”

For now, cellular service in the area is compromised, but representatives from Telus promise they will compensate with a temporary measure soon while the tower undergoes what they claim will be extremely expensive repairs.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Oliver RCMP at 250-485-6220 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.

While vandalism and destruction are less common than outright theft, a high-profile case of tower vandalism happened last November when someone destroyed an AT&T tower in Texas.

Tornado provides tower surprise in Illinois

Mother nature can wreak havoc on cell towers, as we saw last year when a tornado destroyed the legendary KOMA radio tower. This time tornados exerted their terrible power, but in far more benign ways. East Moline, Illinois, was pummeled by storms over the past few days, including tornados. After the storms had passed, a crew went up a tower to repair a radio, only to discover a huge piece of vinyl siding from a house 180-feet up in the air, lodged in the tower. Take a look at it here:

tornado cell tower damage

The obstruction was not on the radio being repaired, and amazingly, it wasn’t causing any outages that anyone was aware of. When and how its removal will be handled is unknown at this time. For now it’s just another amazing way nature reminds us of its awesome power. It’s also nothing new to tower climbers, as they get to see all sorts of crazy things up in towers, including flying snakes.