November 5, 2007 - Grain Bin Collapse at Melbourne Elevator
Around 8:00 this morning, as a semi-truck was loading grain from this bin, some workers heard some popping noises and buckling and quickly told the semi-driver to drive the rig out immediately. Not much later, this 95,000 bushel grain bin collapsed and would have easily buried the truck and driver. Everybody is thought to be safe.
You can see a new shiny bin next door - there were lots of workers around, putting the finishing touches on those bins that are much larger than the older one that collapsed. There is still no reason given - it was a very windy day, but the bin was full, they were working on an adjacent bin, but the cause is only speculation at this point. All the bins were full - so all this corn will have to be trucked out to somewhere else once the investigators have a look. It’s hard to get a sense of scale in this photo, but if you look just to the right of the left-most bin, you can see the top of the 2nd story of the old Melbourne school.
Here’s another closer view.
