View Single Post
  #8   Report Post  
Chris Hill
 
Posts: n/a
Default US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?

On 12 Jul 2004 02:45:54 -0700, (Joseph) wrote:

I noticed that US citizens build their homes from wood even though
they are extremely vulnerable to Tornados, after the victims` homes
has been destroyed by tornados, people rebuild their homes from wood
again.
Isn`t that a foolish thing to do?

In my country Mauritius, (a small Indian Ocean Island) we have several
Cyclones every year during the rainy season, in around 1965 there was
a severe cyclone called Carol which destroyed a considerable quantity
of homes here. Since then people have stopped building their homes
from wood. People build them from concrete nowadays. Except the poor
people who can`t afford concrete homes, they build from metal sheets &
wood. But their homes are often damaged or destroyed when ever there
are cyclones, so they have to move to special refuge centers every
time a serious cyclone comes here.


Fact is that tornados are very isolated events. You could live in a
wooden house in tornado country for all your life and never have it
hit. Another thing: a big powerful f3-f4 can strip a house off its
foundation, it doesn't matter what you build them out of when a big
one comes along.