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Leaning Silo Crumbles To Ground In Mount Pleasant

MOUNT PLEASANT (KDKA) -- You've heard of the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Well, how about the leaning silo of Mt. Pleasant?

A local farmer recently found himself with a mess when an 80-foot silo filled with tons of feed collapsed. The aluminum silo crumbled like a pop can after the concrete one that use to stand beside it came tumbling down.

It's anything but a typical day at Hutter's Dairy Farm in Mount Pleasant Township where tractors are working to clean up hundreds of tons of feed that spilled out of the silo.

"That silo is 80-feet tall, 20-feet wide and it was full," said Alyn Hutter, his family owns the farm.

Hutter said it all began Tuesday afternoon.

"My brother was up top the concrete silo, felt it starting to shift, [and] got down the ladder in hurry," said Hutter.

By the time Hutter got home, his family knew the silo needed to come down.

"We had two wreckers come in and started tying chains onto the bands that held the silo together. Mount Pleasant brought their aerial truck out for us to do that, and started pulling it with the wrecker, snapping the bands until it fell apart," said Hutter.

That happened around 11 p.m.

The falling debris destroyed the silo next to it and caused significant damage to a third. It also damaged the roof of an adjacent barn.

The Hutters are trying to save as much feed as possible by moving it to an area where it can be covered with a tarp, but say a significant amount will be lost because of debris from the concrete.

They say they've been overwhelmed by support from the community. The nearby open pantry market donated food to feed the army of friends who came out to help clean up.

"You don't know how many friends you have until something like this happens," said Hutter.

The Hutters say they aren't sure how long clean-up will take, but in the meantime, they're doing everything they can to keep their business going.

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