Wind gust caught my flatbed load last Tuesday, close call in Odessa

I was picking up a 12 ton steel beam off I-20 in Odessa when a 35 mph gust hit me sideways during the lift. The tagline went slack for a split second and the load started swinging toward the cab of a parked pickup. I dropped the load fast, maybe 2 feet, and let the boom absorb the swing instead of fighting it. Cost me a new sling and a few scrapes on the beam, but nobody got hurt. The radio chatter said gusts were 15 mph, so I didn't rig extra taglines. Anyone else run into sudden wind shifts that the forecast totally missed? How do you decide when to call it off mid-lift?

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nancythomas9d ago

Man, that's a scary situation and glad you handled it the way you did. Dropping the load was the right call, better a new sling than a wrecked truck.