Can You Tornado-Proof A Home?

[steve2470]

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-05/can-you-tornado-proof-home


Safe House After Storm via RhinoSafe

As with so many "is it possible" type questions, the answer of whether you can have a tornado-proof house is a resounding "well, yes, but." In this case, that sentence goes: "Well, yes, but it would be prohibitively expensive and ugly, and nobody really recommends you even bother."

What is tornado-proofing? According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), for a structure to be "tornado-proof" it must be, literally, missile-proof. The most damaging and unpredictable destructive force of a tornado isn't the swirling winds, it's the debris that the tornado picks up and hurls around, often at speeds in excess of 200mph. "Missile" is the right word when you're talking about a refrigerator flying through the air at 200mph.

The weak points in your house are windows and doors, obviously, but the most dangerous entry point may come as a surprise: it's your garage door. Garage doors aren't usually very sturdy, and if they blow down, the rush of wind can cause your house to become pressurized, like a can of soda. In extreme cases, wind can explode into the main house and blow down walls or even the ceiling. The other possible danger is in traditional insulation: air at this speed can cause serious damage, and if air can get between your walls at tornado-level speeds, they don't stand much of a chance.

Can you tornado-proof a whole house? Sure. You can live in a house made of solid concrete, with a steel door and no windows. You'd probably have to build it from scratch, though.

[Vincardog]

1. Or you could just build underground

[Demoiselle]

5. Yeah, I've always assumed a "storm cellar" could keep you safe..

Properly equipped with really heavy doors, of course. And some kind of air vents, I guess.
BuI think I heard a comment on the telly the other day from an Oklahoma native to the effect that the ground is so hard in parts of the state that you can't make a hole in the ground without dynamite. (Of course, I could have heard completely wrong.)

[Vincardog]

10. I have lived in OK and TX. In that part of the country you get clay that dries so hard it will bend

a steel pick if you try ti dig it. When I had to dig a trench (for electric or plumbing) in the summer; I would
1 hose the area down,
2 scratch up the muck,
3 fill the scratch with water
4 wait 15 minutes
5 return to step
Until I had the trench I needed.

In TX I had a "Storm Shelter" that was basically a concrete circle 6 ft. deep in the ground
with a domed roof and reinforced steel doors. You can build underground if you do it in the wet season and pad it with a "compression zone" of compressible material around it. It also has vents in the celling.

[dumbcat]

8. Which is a whole 'nuther interesting engineering challenge

in itself, which I find fascinating. Underground homes have been designed and constructed for centuries for various reasons. Doable, but usually not practical or cost effective, which is why you don't see many of them.

[Vincardog]

11. I have seen them in OK, TX and AZ.

[dumbcat]

12. And Taos, New Mexico

With the right terrain and climate conditions they are doable. I looked into it when I was in California because I was interested in the energy efficiency. I found that there was favorable ground conditions in many places (I was in Carmel Valley) but it was impossible to get zoning and building code approvals, or a construction or mortgage loan. It was too far out of the "normal."

If you are old enough, you may remember Allen Funt of Candid Camera fame. He spent decades trying to get approval to build an underground home on his property along the Big Sur coast. It would not be visible from the road (Hwy 1) or barely from the sea. I don't think he ever got it approved.

The biggest problem I found was trying to find a builder that would even try. There are a number on the internet, but they all stay pretty busy with high end customers.

[uppityperson]

2. Good article and lots of good research has happened about tornadoes. It has changed.

Used to be we left windows open a crack to let air equalize and minimize chance of house exploding outwards. Then they figured out that didn't do anything but waste time and the largest problem was not dealing with the wind and pressure but all the crap, all the debris, blowing around in the wind.

Looking at a video posted recently about a safe shelter which threw stuff at a shelter, including several 2X4s end on, it wasn't enough. Throw lots of debris at it, end on, and see what happens.

Used to be people worry about getting sucked up into a tornado a la Wiz of Oz but while it is true 200 mph wind can blow you around a lot, including up off the ground, it is the wind blowing, not tornado sucking you up.

Used to be briefly thank dog that you should go to an underpass because of one youtube vid showing people survived a tornado that way. Lots of info out now showing that they survived because there was a crawl space which is very rare and going to an underpass is very dangerous.

And of course no safe room will protect all the time against everything. But it will help against many and most.

Sorry for going on and on, tornadoes fascinate and frighten me. Thanks for the article.

[steve2470]

3. you're very welcome ! nt

[Pragdem]

4. Built to withstand hurricanes and tornadoes...

[pediatricmedic]

15. Yes, concrete dome homes do very well, along with red steel framed houses.

They don't burn as easily. Cost is comparable to traditional construction as well. They also tend to be very energy efficient as well.

I like looking over these sites and others like them:
http://www.monolithic.com/
http://www.kodiaksteelhomes.com/

[AsahinaKimi]

16. That really reminds me of this...

A home for Hobbits.

[JVS]

6. This is one of those things that you have to think about in degrees of protection rather than...

an absolute measurement of tornado proof vs not tornado proof.

[Savannahmann]

7. I saw some rednecks on TV

It was a while back, but they built a tornado proof outhouse, well, it was roughly that size, out of cinderblocks, concrete, rebar, and a steel door. Cost was under $2k, and they shot 2X4 at the door, and the walls, and nothing got in. I think they even dropped a car on it, and the structure stood up.

So while you may not be able to reasonably tornado proof your house, you could build a survival shelter that would save your life for a reasonable price. Providing you had a few rednecks around to use their work stuff to help you get the concrete up to the roof of the bloody thing. I found a write up on the show.

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[steve2470]

9. thanks for article and video nt

[Lurker Deluxe]

13. The obvious answer is no

Can you build something that is tornado proof? No.

Do tornadoes happen with out other dramatic weather effects? No.

A tornado blowing across Kansas during a thunderstorm can easily be avoided by an underground shelter. That same shelter on the coast after getting drenched with rain for 3 days by a hurricane which spawns a tornado would be flooded and useless.

The proper term is "resistant". You can build shelters that have greater survivability to weather events depending on your geographical location.

Back when I was in construction we built a boat house for the guy who owned one of the companies we worked for, 40' boat with a boat house that had major pilings and all the special stuff, ring shank nails, OG washers on the major joints, hurricane straps on the other connections, and a lift that was capable of picking his big ass boat clean out of the water.

The house had massive laminate timbers that formed a triangle shape and all of the windows had metal roll up shutters, the whole thing was a monster. Hurricane proof it was called.

Alicia simply picked up that 40' boat and dropped it on the house.

We were out there a month later with a dozer and some equipment cleaning up what was left of the "hurricane proof" beach house on Tiki Island.

The forces contained in these massive storms can not even truly me measured, there is no way to plan or account for the variables involved so there is no way it can be "tornado/hurricane/earthquake proof".

[FarCenter]

14. When I was a kid, basement houses were sometimes built

Usually a basement house was the first stage of someone's project for building a house. They would dig the basement, finish it, and put a roof on just at grade level. Later, when they had enough money, the first and then second floors would be added.

Note that in many parts of the prairie states the first settlers built dugouts with sod roofs. No logs for log cabins and above ground walls.