The owner of a Watts Bar Lake marina where heavy winds flipped a floating boat dock and sent it crashing into another estimated the damage Tuesday at more than $1 million.
Louann Bennett, owner of Arrowhead Resort and Marina, said one of her 24-slip docks flipped upside down onto another, sandwiching about 25 boats.
“Guests who saw it said the dock rose straight up and then turned over right in the air on top of the other dock,” Ms. Bennett said.
It happened Monday night during a raging thunderstorm, she said. Her third dock and other docks within 200 feet of the damaged docks were unscathed.
Such powerful shafts of winds that descend suddenly out of thunderstorms are known as downbursts, and meteorologists say they are able to cause massive amounts of damage in a matter of seconds.
Meteorologist Paul Barys with WRCB-Channel 3 said downbursts can include straight-line wind shears ranging from 20-180 mph, with the potential power to level trees or down planes. They typically last from a few seconds to a few minutes and affect a very limited radius.
Mr. Barys said the downburst that hit Arrowhead Resort was probably a microburst, a smaller downburst.
“What probably happened was that the wind came down somewhere near the dock, spread out underneath the dock, lifted it like an airplane wing, and split it apart,” said Mr. Barys. He said the microburst was moving at least 60 mph.
Ms. Bennett said engineers have begun evaluating the damage and the possibilities for reconstruction.