Personal computing discussed
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just brew it! wrote:...and in "Tornado Alley" there isn't really much you can do to tornado-proof a house unless you are willing to live in a Cold War era underground missile silo. Tornadoes are smaller than hurricanes in terms of area, but unimaginably powerful where they touch down. Brick exterior walls will provide some protection from blowing debris if a tornado passes nearby, but won't stand up to a direct hit; if you're inside a brick home when it gets hit by a tornado, in all likelihood you'll literally be buried alive under a ton of bricks.
superjawes wrote:What's worse, the stronger the twister, the larger the projectiles...
Arclight wrote:JohnC wrote:Well... it appears that we may be screwed on Monday:[...]
Unlike in Florida, our flimsy matchstick houses here in NY aren't really designed to be "hurricane-proof"...
I always wondered why US houses are so flimsy.....especially in areas affected by tornados and hurricans. Why not make them out of sturdy materials? If not do something innovative like dom houses or something. Do you really prefer just to rebuild every time?
ludi wrote:The only practical structure that can withstand those sorts of forces and not take critical damage is a subterranean cave. Otherwise, you're talking in terms of steel-reinforced concrete structures with foundations constructed of drilled piers or massive steel bolts into bedrock, when bedrock is located at a practical depth, all for a one-in-a-million chance of being hit by a freak act of nature...at a cost of 50-100 times an ordinary home price. In other news, it is technically possible to build homes that are completely fireproof, but nobody does it, for similar reasons. Better to just use good wiring practice, keep fire extinguishers handy, maybe install an active fire suppression system in some cases where the risk outweighs the cost...and carry a good homeowner's insurance policy.
just brew it! wrote:A walk-in freezer might be okay from a direct hit since it has a building around it. Sure, there would be lots of damage to the building, but it could also disrupt the airflow, essentially preventing the tornado from getting under the freezer like it would a standalone structure (or a car).On a side note, you sometimes hear about restaurant workers who survive a tornado by taking shelter in a walk-in freezer. But this doesn't protect from a direct hit; a direct hit would completely shred the freezer and its contents. What the freezer *does* do is provide some protection from flying and falling debris.
derFunkenstein wrote:Tornadoes can just pick up entire buildings and deposit them elsewhere. I've seen first-hand a house that it picked up off the foundation, spun it 90 degrees, and set it right back down. Fortunately the owners weren't home. I don't think a structure that would be "okay from a direct hit" exists.
Arclight wrote:derFunkenstein wrote:Tornadoes can just pick up entire buildings and deposit them elsewhere. I've seen first-hand a house that it picked up off the foundation, spun it 90 degrees, and set it right back down. Fortunately the owners weren't home. I don't think a structure that would be "okay from a direct hit" exists.
What about flats? I never watched that many tornado aftermath videos (mostly i've seen on the Discovery channel), but concrete structures like flat apartments are also as affected as normal wood or brick homes? I presume they shouldn't but i'd like some images to show the contrary.
Arclight wrote:Living in Oklahoma, I can't think of any apartment complexes that are made from just concrete, they're usually made from the same materials as traditional homes. With that being said, apartments are usually one of the worst places to be (next to a trailer park) during a tornado.What about flats? I never watched that many tornado aftermath videos (mostly i've seen on the Discovery channel), but concrete structures like flat apartments are also as affected as normal wood or brick homes? I presume they shouldn't but i'd like some images to show the contrary.
Dizik wrote:Arclight wrote:Living in Oklahoma, I can't think of any apartment complexes that are made from just concrete, they're usually made from the same materials as traditional homes. With that being said, apartments are usually one of the worst places to be (next to a trailer park) during a tornado.What about flats? I never watched that many tornado aftermath videos (mostly i've seen on the Discovery channel), but concrete structures like flat apartments are also as affected as normal wood or brick homes? I presume they shouldn't but i'd like some images to show the contrary.
Arclight wrote:Idk how buildings are constructed there, but the fact that you say "Living in Oklahoma, I can't think of any apartment complexes that are made from just concrete" makes me even more curious as to why you have such flimsy buildings.
just brew it! wrote:Arclight wrote:Idk how buildings are constructed there, but the fact that you say "Living in Oklahoma, I can't think of any apartment complexes that are made from just concrete" makes me even more curious as to why you have such flimsy buildings.
As someone else posted above, it's mainly a cost thing. Given that the risk of any individual structure being hit by a tornado over its lifetime is very small, and the cost of making a structure "tornado proof" very high, it just isn't economically viable.
Arclight wrote:I can only compare to what i know. Where i live in Europe we don't experience tornados but we do have earthquakes and floods and even though you say it's not economically viable i've seen buildings far more durable in small cities here than the flimsy structures described by the posters, or what i've seen on the news or on Discovery channel.
Be it economy or tradition, to me as an European, i find most of American houses and small buildings designed for housing, to be weak, especialy because they are exposed to extreme natural disasters like tornados.
paulWTAMU wrote:If some of your durable buildings dealt with even an F3 I don't know if they'd still be standing. Or a large cat 3 storm.
Krogoth wrote:Care to enlightenment me?
Arclight wrote:Where i live in Europe we don't experience tornados but we do have earthquakes and floods...
grantmeaname wrote:As requested. Did you show up halfway through the thread, or do you have a terrible short-term memory?
And just so we're clear: the gist of your argument is "we don't have any tornadoes, but we have floods and we can build buildings that are flood proof, so you can build buildings that are tornado proof". Do you see the problem with that line of reasoning?
paulWTAMU wrote:Because making a building able to deal with isn't cost effective.
Floods are probably more damaging than tornadoes, but it's not very expensive to handle a flood provided that you have levees on your rivers that are likely to flood. You can also simply raise the living floors in an apartment complex so that parking structures flood, leaving the living spaces relatively safe.
Arclight wrote:Be it economy or tradition, to me as an European, i find most of American houses and small buildings designed for housing, to be weak, especialy because they are exposed to extreme natural disasters like tornados.
JustAnEngineer wrote:The easiest thing to do when building a new home is to have a walk-in closet with reinforced concrete walls, a metal door and a steel plate ceiling. That way, if the whole house is blown away, you're still okay in the safe room / tornado shelter. The cost for this sort of addition might be in the ballpark of $5k for new construction or more than double that for modifications to an existing home.
Vrock wrote:JustAnEngineer wrote:The easiest thing to do when building a new home is to have a walk-in closet with reinforced concrete walls, a metal door and a steel plate ceiling. That way, if the whole house is blown away, you're still okay in the safe room / tornado shelter. The cost for this sort of addition might be in the ballpark of $5k for new construction or more than double that for modifications to an existing home.
Alternatively, one could just buy a house with a basement.
just brew it! wrote:...and have the whole house fall in on your head when the tornado hits.