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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
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. Schools are used as refuge centers for them during severe cyclone warnings. So I am wondering why people continue to build homes in USA from wood when obviously they will be destroyed in a Tornado. It is obviously a risky thing to do as they put their lives & their families` lives in danger doing this, especially in regions where Tornados occurs. I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Aren`t concrete homes less likely to be destroyed by Tornados? Let me know please why US citizens continue to build their homes from wood. |
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#2
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
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#3
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
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#4
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
On 12 Jul 2004 02:45:54 -0700, (Joseph) wrote:
I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Aren`t concrete homes less likely to be destroyed by Tornados? Let me know please why US citizens continue to build their homes from wood. So you believe what you see in the movies? Sad. Ever seen "Alien"? John Davies http://home.comcast.net/~johnedavies/ '96 Lexus LX450 '00 Audi A4 1.8T quattro Spokane WA USA |
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#5
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
Doug Miller wrote:
In article , (Joseph) wrote: I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Aren`t concrete homes less likely to be destroyed by Tornados? Let me know please why US citizens continue to build their homes from wood. Because concrete buildings are ugly. And the destruction of home by a tornado is a comparatively rare event. Concrete building isn't all ugly. It's totally possible for concrete building to be built with a taste but in this country concrete building are all for commercial/public building so aesthetic is not a priority. I think a more important reason is concrete building cost a lot more $$$ than wood frame building and the housing market is not willing/ready to pay the differences for the added security. I'd venture to say if tornado hits even 2-3% of the house in the tornado alley each year then there will be a market for the concrete house in the US. FC |
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#6
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
"Joseph" wrote in message
om... 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? According to Science News, if you pick a random point in the part of the USA that is most prone to tornadoes, you can expect that point to be hit by a serious tornado about once every 4,000 years. That's not enough to worry about. On the other hand, people in the USA are constantly modifying their houses. For example, my wife and I have more than doubled the size of our house during the 20 years we've lived here. Such modifications are much easier for wooden houses than concrete ones. More details he http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020511/bob9.asp |
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#8
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
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#9
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
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#10
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
On 12 Jul 2004 02:45:54 -0700, someone wrote:
In my country Mauritius, (a small Indian Ocean Island) we have several Cyclones every year during the rainy season... Cyclones = our hurricanes. They do not equal tornados. Wooden home built to US standards withstand hurricanes/cyclones very easily. A cyclone effects your entire country. The US is vast and any one spot will not be hit by a tornado in a centuries. It is like asking why don't people armor their roofs since sometimes things fall off of airplanes. I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Don't you realize movies are exaggerated fantasies, and documentaries highlight unusual events? Are people native English speakers in your country? Because you post better than half the Americans here. -v. |
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#11
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
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#12
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
"Bert Hyman" wrote in message ... (Andrew Koenig) wrote in : According to Science News, if you pick a random point in the part of the USA that is most prone to tornadoes, you can expect that point to be hit by a serious tornado about once every 4,000 years. That's not enough to worry about. Except that tornados aren't distributed randomly across the US; there are areas that get a lot of them and there are areas that get few of them. And both the OP and the article addressed this. It is 1 in 4,000 years in the area MOST PRONE to tornados. Rich |
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#13
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
(Rich) wrote in
: "Bert Hyman" wrote in message ... (Andrew Koenig) wrote in : According to Science News, if you pick a random point in the part of the USA that is most prone to tornadoes, you can expect that point to be hit by a serious tornado about once every 4,000 years. That's not enough to worry about. Except that tornados aren't distributed randomly across the US; there are areas that get a lot of them and there are areas that get few of them. And both the OP and the article addressed this. It is 1 in 4,000 years in the area MOST PRONE to tornados. Say... you're right. Looked right at it and read what I expected to see, not what he actually wrote. Dang... -- Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | |
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#14
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
"Bert Hyman" wrote in message
... (Andrew Koenig) wrote in According to Science News, if you pick a random point in the part of the USA that is most prone to tornadoes, you can expect that point to be hit by a serious tornado about once every 4,000 years. Except that tornados aren't distributed randomly across the US; there are areas that get a lot of them and there are areas that get few of them. Yes indeed. Did you read the article I cited? It takes that into account. The 4,000-year figure is for the parts of the country that get the most tornadoes. There are areas where the figure is millions of years, rather than thousands. |
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#15
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
Thank you all of you who have replied to my questions.
In Mauritius it is costly to build a house from wood in the long run as it needs lots of maintenance. There are other reasons that makes it costly for wooden homes. Wood is imported, so is probably more costly in my country than in the USA, who produces its own wood for construction. And also because there are few people who work nowadays as carpenters, this increase the costs of maintenance & building costs. Those few people who still have old wooden colonial homes spend a lot of money every year to keep the homes in good condition. Especially the roofs which are mostly made from cut pieces of wood that are put on top just like slates are used on roofs, but are nailed on top. V, I am not sure whether most Mauritians can write English like me, but I do a good amount of people do write good English from what I saw in the Mauritius newsgroup alt.mauritius which is the one that gets the most messages in Mauritius, probably because we can discuss almost anything there as long as it concerns Mauritius. And also because it is open to foreigners via Google news. But I also know that several students failed their exams on more than one occasion because they had bad results in English language which is essential to get the Higher School Certificate. The main ISP Mauritius Telecom (it is also the first) supports it in its news servers, the other ISPs don`t offer such service as they are mostly recently opened as previously (2-3 years ago) there was a monopol of Telecomunications services by them. At school my best results were in languages, ( we are taught English & French there, as well as a few other local languages (in Secondary schools,which are optional, Hindi, Bojpuri etc( mainly Indian languages, as the majority of the local population are Hindus 70% ) Chinese is also taught in a few secondary schools. Partly also because I have been going to an English speaking church since 1982, & regularly English speaking visitors came each year. I do realise that I often make some gramatical or typing mistakes. John, I did not realise that Twister was an exagerated situation, & recently I watched a documentary that showed the various occasions ( showing several years of events) where Tornados hit the USA, in some of the regions where they there were many homes that were destroyed. I tend to believe what I see in movies when it is what appears to be something that is plausible. Alien is entirely based on fiction, just like UFOs, even if some people do believe them. It also showed that at times several Tornados occured at the same time in a single region just like in Twister. So this made me think that there are such situations in the USA. I did ask a friend who is a meteorologist about how in the Twister movie a scientist sent some apparatus into a Tornado to analyse it. He told me that this has never been done yet. In the documentary a scientist had built a mini helicopter with a camera to send into a Tornado, but it did not say whether it had sucessfully entered in a Tornado, it did say that the rotor`s might be damaged there. Once I read that depending on the speed of wind the names are different, it can be called a cyclone or a hurricane or some other names depending on wind speed, but here what ever the spped of the wind we still call them cyclones, we have had wind speed of over 150 kms per hour on more than 1 occasion. I have another question to ask that does not concern Tornados. I read in a magazine once that there is a high tax on property in at least one State. There was a case where someone inherited a property which contained a forest. He could not pay the high tax that was required so he had to cut all the trees to be able to pay the excessive tax on the property. Then later on he could not pay the tax again so had to sell it to pay the tax. Is this high tax on land applicable in only one state or in several states? |
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#16
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
"Joseph" wrote in message
om... It also showed that at times several Tornados occured at the same time in a single region just like in Twister. So this made me think that there are such situations in the USA. Such situations do exist. However, the thing to remember is that unlike cyclones, tornadoes affect an extremely small area. My parents live in a small town that was hit by a tornado about 30 years ago. I believe that it is the only tornado that has ever been reported in that part of the country. The tornado destroyed one house, leaving the two houses next to it untouched. In fact, it destroyed *half* of one house--the rest of the house remained standing. It was quite remarkable--it was like someone had cut the house in half with a very large knife. I saw it personally a few weeks later. So tornadoes are so concentrated that they can destroy a single house and leave its neighbors alone. That is quite a different story from cyclones, which I think are hundreds of kms in diameter. Similar storms, called hurricanes, affect parts of the US as well, mostly the southern states near the Atlantic ocean, and houses in that area are usually required to be built in a way that is strong enough to withstand a hurricane. I have another question to ask that does not concern Tornados. I read in a magazine once that there is a high tax on property in at least one State. There was a case where someone inherited a property which contained a forest. He could not pay the high tax that was required so he had to cut all the trees to be able to pay the excessive tax on the property. Then later on he could not pay the tax again so had to sell it to pay the tax. Is this high tax on land applicable in only one state or in several states? It is probably not a tax on land, but rather a tax on inheritance. The USA has very high taxes inheritance taxes, but they affect only very large inheritances--I think the first million dollars or so are exempt. The laws changed recently to phase out inheritance taxes over the next ten years, but then they come back unless Congress does something about it before then. |
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#17
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
"v" wrote in message ... On 12 Jul 2004 02:45:54 -0700, someone wrote: In my country Mauritius, (a small Indian Ocean Island) we have several Cyclones every year during the rainy season... Cyclones = our hurricanes. They do not equal tornados. Wooden home built to US standards withstand hurricanes/cyclones very easily. A cyclone effects your entire country. The US is vast and any one spot will not be hit by a tornado in a centuries. It is like asking why don't people armor their roofs since sometimes things fall off of airplanes. I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Don't you realize movies are exaggerated fantasies, and documentaries highlight unusual events? Are people native English speakers in your country? Because you post better than half the Americans here. -v. I'm impressed that you know the citizenship of everyone that posts here. Brigitte |
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#18
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
Joseph wrote:
It also showed that at times several Tornados occured at the same time in a single region just like in Twister. So this made me think that there are such situations in the USA. They do indeed occur. However, they are extremely rare and if one happens a decade that's a lot. Remember, the US is REALLY HUGE and most of it is empty of humans by the standards of other countries, especially where a lot of tornadoes occur. I drove across South Dakota with a friend of mine from Germany and he was stunned when for long stretches we saw no sign of people other than the road and a few other cars. Some statistics from 1950 to 1999: Most tornado deaths in one year: 519 (1953) Average: 82 Fewest tornado deaths in one year: 15 (1986) To put that in perspective there are about 40,000 deaths in automobile accidents a year in the US and about 100,000 accidental deaths by all causes. |
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#19
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
Tornados are just testament that God hates trailer parks. It's not stick
built homes that need to worry, it's the toothpick built homes. "Joseph" wrote in message om... 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. Schools are used as refuge centers for them during severe cyclone warnings. So I am wondering why people continue to build homes in USA from wood when obviously they will be destroyed in a Tornado. It is obviously a risky thing to do as they put their lives & their families` lives in danger doing this, especially in regions where Tornados occurs. I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Aren`t concrete homes less likely to be destroyed by Tornados? Let me know please why US citizens continue to build their homes from wood. |
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#20
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 16:08:24 -0500, Brigitte J. wrote:
"v" wrote in message ... On 12 Jul 2004 02:45:54 -0700, someone wrote: In my country Mauritius, (a small Indian Ocean Island) we have several Cyclones every year during the rainy season... Cyclones = our hurricanes. They do not equal tornados. Wooden home built to US standards withstand hurricanes/cyclones very easily. A cyclone effects your entire country. The US is vast and any one spot will not be hit by a tornado in a centuries. It is like asking why don't people armor their roofs since sometimes things fall off of airplanes. I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Don't you realize movies are exaggerated fantasies, and documentaries highlight unusual events? Are people native English speakers in your country? Because you post better than half the Americans here. -v. I'm impressed that you know the citizenship of everyone that posts here. It's usually more than obvious from the email address, alone. I doubt you'll find many U.S. residents posting from a .uk or a .ch address, for example. - Rich |
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#21
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
"Timm Simpkins" wrote in message ...
Tornados are just testament that God hates trailer parks. It's not stick built homes that need to worry, it's the toothpick built homes. Riiiiiight... look through the pictures here and see how many are mobile homes. http://storms.newsok.com/cgi-bin/sho...storm_may2003# |
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#22
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
"user" wrote in message ... On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 16:08:24 -0500, Brigitte J. wrote: "v" wrote in message ... On 12 Jul 2004 02:45:54 -0700, someone wrote: In my country Mauritius, (a small Indian Ocean Island) we have several Cyclones every year during the rainy season... Cyclones = our hurricanes. They do not equal tornados. Wooden home built to US standards withstand hurricanes/cyclones very easily. A cyclone effects your entire country. The US is vast and any one spot will not be hit by a tornado in a centuries. It is like asking why don't people armor their roofs since sometimes things fall off of airplanes. I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Don't you realize movies are exaggerated fantasies, and documentaries highlight unusual events? Are people native English speakers in your country? Because you post better than half the Americans here. -v. I'm impressed that you know the citizenship of everyone that posts here. It's usually more than obvious from the email address, alone. I doubt you'll find many U.S. residents posting from a .uk or a .ch address, for example. - Rich But knowing where their messages originate doesn't tell you where they're originally from, or their native tongue. Brigitte |
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#23
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 16:40:50 GMT, Brigitte J. wrote:
"user" wrote in message ... On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 16:08:24 -0500, Brigitte J. wrote: "v" wrote in message ... On 12 Jul 2004 02:45:54 -0700, someone wrote: In my country Mauritius, (a small Indian Ocean Island) we have several Cyclones every year during the rainy season... Cyclones = our hurricanes. They do not equal tornados. Wooden home built to US standards withstand hurricanes/cyclones very easily. A cyclone effects your entire country. The US is vast and any one spot will not be hit by a tornado in a centuries. It is like asking why don't people armor their roofs since sometimes things fall off of airplanes. I saw movies depicting Tornados in USA (Twister & another one I can`t remember the name), as well as documentaries. Don't you realize movies are exaggerated fantasies, and documentaries highlight unusual events? Are people native English speakers in your country? Because you post better than half the Americans here. -v. I'm impressed that you know the citizenship of everyone that posts here. It's usually more than obvious from the email address, alone. I doubt you'll find many U.S. residents posting from a .uk or a .ch address, for example. - Rich But knowing where their messages originate doesn't tell you where they're originally from, or their native tongue. No, but it's one more link in the chain of evidence that can give you a clue about their native tongue. Just examining their use ( or lack thereof ) of idiomatic expressions, word order, conjugations, etc, can make it relatively easy to decide if someone was educated in Smyrna, TN, or Smyrna, Turkey. - Rich |
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#24
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 16:40:50 GMT, someone wrote:
I'm impressed that you know the citizenship of everyone that posts here. So Brid, what are you claiming, that a significant proportion of the people posting from US addresses and using US colloquial language, are actually NOT "Americans" by either birth or residence????? The overwhelming majority of the posts here are from US addresses using US style speech, yet their "English" is often poor. So when I go and compliment a guy who says his country is Mauritius on *his* GOOD English, you get huffy about it???? WHY? -v. |
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#25
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
Bert Hyman writes:
And of course, some folks still live in those tornado magnets, mobile homes. We have to have *someone* to tell the news cameras that "It was like a nuke-u-ler explosion!" Me? I'd just like to have a basement...'cept when it floods like it just did. For now I try to concentrate my concerns on more likely occurrences such as being maimed/killed by a deer. I still like the idea of having a concrete home though. --kyler |
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#26
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US homes vulnerable to Tornados ( wooden), why not use concrete?
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? Yes, but... So I am wondering why people continue to build homes in USA from wood when obviously they will be destroyed in a Tornado. It is obviously a risky thing to do as they put their lives & their families` lives in danger doing this, especially in regions where Tornados occurs. Yes, but... Let me know please why US citizens continue to build their homes from wood. Inertia of the home construction industry, coupled with inertia of the bureaucratic building code enforcement, coupled with marketing tastes, coupled with tax incentives, and economic expediency (wood was initially cheaper) explains most of the practice of building with wood. One more thing - remodeling is easier with wood frame construction. Thomas Edison was fond of concrete so much that he designed and built forms for pouring a concrete house. Unfortunately, they were too expensive for the times. And the fact that it's difficult to remodel and upgrade stopped further exploration. WHY DOLORES CHUMSKY HATES THOMAS EDISON http://flyingmoose.org/truthfic/edison.htm http://www.worldwideschool.org/libra...on/chap49.html I personally like concrete for walls, as in concrete sandwich construction (concrete - insulation - concrete). 3-D Panel, for example: http://www.blockmex.com/ For floors and decks, I like CEMPO: http://www.cempo.com/ But few homes in the USA are built with these products. |
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