Portion of the Wall Falls

New section of wall goes all Jericho in Mexicali

Via CNN: Portion of US border wall in California falls over in high winds and lands on Mexican side.

Newly installed panels from the US border wall fell over in high winds Wednesday, landing on trees on the Mexican side of the border.
The area is part of an ongoing construction project to improve existing sections of the wall.

Agent Carlos Pitones of the Customs and Border Protection sector in El Centro, California, told CNN that the sections that gave way had recently been set in a new concrete foundation in Calexico, California. The concrete had not yet cured, according to Pitones, and the wall panels were unable to withstand the windy conditions.

Trees on the Mexican side of the border kept the wall from completing falling down. Wind gusts were up to 37 mph (which does not strike me all that high).

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Insert joke about hiring only the best people and knowing how to build things here.

FILED UNDER: Borders and Immigration, US Politics, , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. An Interested Party says:

    Sometimes fate presents us with unmistakable truths…

    5
  2. Jax says:

    We’ve got snow fences on I-80 that are tougher than that. šŸ˜‰ I’d say they should maybe hire WYDOT engineers, but these are the same guys who put I-80 where it’s at to begin with, against all of the advice of the locals warning of high winds.

    I suspect this won’t be the last “monument” to Trump’s idiocy that crumbles and falls.

    3
  3. Joe says:

    I suspect this wonā€™t be the last ā€œmonumentā€ to Trumpā€™s idiocy that crumbles and falls.

    Queue @Kathy for another Ozymandias reference.

    2
  4. Kathy says:

    @Joe:

    Not this time.

    If I wasn’t atheist, I’d say something like “proof God has a sense of humor.” But I am, so instead I’ll go with:

    Ill fares the land, to hastening ill a prey,
    Where wealth accumulates and men decay:

    And fences, too.

    5
  5. gVOR08 says:

    Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
    That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
    And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
    And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

    Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
    What I was walling in or walling out,
    And to whom I was like to give offense.
    Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
    That wants it down

    12
  6. Gustopher says:

    I guess he canā€™t keep it up? (Not entirely surprising at his age)

    Seriously, though, I thought these wall chunks went below the surface a bit…

    2
  7. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Jax:

    Iā€™d say they should maybe hire WYDOT engineers, but these are the same guys who put I-80 where itā€™s at to begin with,

    I don’t think one can blame WYDOT engineers for that, or any other engineers either. Politics always played a much larger part in the placement of interstates then design or suitability.

    2
  8. CSK says:

    Humpty-Trumpty.

    Yeah, I know it was Humpty who fell and not the wall, but I couldn’t resist.

    2
  9. Kathy says:

    “I will huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blooooow your wall down!”

    3
  10. Jax says:

    @OzarkHillbilly: Apparently it was mostly the Feds, and the fact that it was 19 miles shorter than the much milder US 30 route.

    I wonder if they still would’ve made that decision if they had known how often that stretch would be completely shut down? I saw an estimate a while back that said the weather-related closures costs billions in lost revenue every year. Not to mention the human cost, a lot of people die on that stretch.

    1
  11. CSK says:

    I’ve not done an exhaustive survey, but this tidbit is not, strangely, being reported on the pro-Trump sites.

    It must be Fake News.

    2
  12. Kathy says:

    @CSK:

    It shows the limitations of the amateur propaganda machine. This should be seized on and blown out of proportion. The Big Beautiful Wall has been sabotaged! we must start rounding up the terrorists responsible!

  13. CSK says:

    @Kathy:
    I think they would be more likely to blame the Democrats for sabotaging it, don’t you?

  14. Kingdaddy says:

    I wonder how resistant the wall, as designed, is to floods, fires, earthquakes, erosion, or mud slides. Maybe we could ask the Roman engineers who built Hadrian’s Wall for pointers on how to build barriers to withstand natural forces.

  15. Jax says:

    @Kingdaddy: Or trees falling on it. Apparently the trees on the Mexico side caught it from falling completely. I don’t know how many movies these wall designers DIDN’T watch, but the ol’ “tree on wall = ramp” trick has been around a while. šŸ˜‰

    1
  16. HankP says:

    Not sure if anyone here is aware of this, but trump has been claiming at his rallies that the wall is being built and that Mexico is paying for it.

  17. Jax says:

    @HankP: The cult followers will believe anything he tells them.

  18. Nickel Front says:

    The concrete hadn’t fully set yet.

    Do you even read what you post?

    It’s quite obvious no one else posting here bothered to read past the headline either.

  19. @Nickel Front: The quote from the CNN stories noted “The concrete had not yet cured.”

    And, a portion of the wall did fall.

    As such, what is your point?