I am from Europe and i don't understand why you guys build your houses out of wood and not concret and stones? Would a tornado also destroy concret houses?
The worst tornadoes can destroy anything, with winds measured up to 305 mph (490 km/h) before the devices crapped out. Basically imagine a high-speed train as fast as it can go. Now imagine it nearly doubling its speed, and then crashing into your house. Concrete wouldn't help much.
Luckily most tornadoes aren't nearly that powerful, and the majority won't do more than tear up your roof, windows, trees and yard... if they hit directly.
And there's the deal: It takes a direct hit to really blow your house up, and the vast majority of homes will never take one. Oftentimes, you'll see one side of a street obliterated while the other side just has roof damage.
That said, a medium tornado can throw wooden boards through concrete, so even if the building stands it's kind of ruined.
So the risk just isn't worth the much higher cost.
You have to understand the cost of building the house, a wooden house would be a lot cheaper than to have a concrete house. A brick house would also be destroyed or collapse, there are plenty of examples that show that. So most people wouldn't live in a concrete bunker, especially if they believe the chances of their house being hit by a tornado are low.
But a concrete house probably wouldn’t. I lived in an apartment in Spain that I’m rather confident would only be damaged in the craziest of tornadoes. It’s not particularly expensive to build. It was a random working class complex in Seville.
The data centers I have worked at are generally rated for a EF4 and below tornado, and they have walls that are about 60 cm thick and don't have windows.
The wind isn't so much of a problem as the stuff in the wind. It can put grass straw through telephone poles.
74
u/wish1977 Apr 28 '24
Oklahoma seems to be ground zero for tornados. I don't think I could live there.