Tornado in Oklahoma

[David M]

Seems to me an underground shelter would be ideal for many types of disasters. The problem would be costs, there would be so many hands, politicians, unions, etc) in the pie the costs would be prohibitive. Sad in many ways.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[nanasohana]

The path of this tornado went mainly through older subdivisions built in the 50's so a lot fewer building codes then and Oklahoma as a state isn't very old. In the country, one would have a root cellar and that would be used during a storm. I see no excuse for at least all new construction to have at least a safe room.

Terrible that there has to be such tragedy for people to finally get the message, but that seems to be the case.

I am afraid this is just a sign of more violent weather and storms to come, not just in Oklahoma. Not sure how everyone everywhere can prepare for whats likely coming. Best they can, I guess. Strong community is invaluable at times like this.

[pahoated]

The problem with the term "global warming" is that it gives people the visual image in their mind of a spherical globe with uniform warming of the atmosphere, then proceed to reject that for multiple reasons. The full term should be "global thermodynamic warming", with the average temperature increasing gradually, except wildly fluctuating in localized regions, hot pockets of air dumping into cold pockets with tremendous releases of power and energy. These super storms won't be super that long, they will become the new normal.

"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"

[Kapohocat]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MarkP...
The moral of the story is to work within the limits of the material, plus the ancient Egyptians and Incas didn't scrimp on either materials or manpower.

---

I could not agree more.

This next rant is specific to those who build their own or have them built. (Not those who necessarily bought a older house).

We used to have a poster on the wall where I worked before at a lumber supplier:

"Cheap, Fast, Well-built - pick 2".

When disaster happens, people complain especially about their homes falling down. But the ones who complained every step of the way, and nickle and dimed to get their home built, dont seem to remember that the builder said do this or do that for strength. All they saw was more $$$'s.

An example is using 3500psi concrete and more steel in a foundation. The word "foundation" means: to found, institute, build, or bring into being on a firm or stable basis. Repeat "firm or stable". Many people balk at adding to their foundation, and building well from there.

By building well, I also mean being a responsible person and NOT just relying on building codes. Not to make light of OK, but any person building a new home there should already be aware of tornadoes, and say to the architect: "I dont see where you added our safe room. Dont forget about it." And make sure it has what you will need.

I am taking my own advice here and when we start remodeling, we are adding as much strength and what I call "under-structure" as it is under floor, under siding, under the roof.

This house was built in 1974 and even though I think some of our codes are just bureaucratic nonsense, there are some that truly make sense like hurricane strapping tied all the way to the foundation.

[Rob Tucker]

Building codes are the lowest standard allowed by law. A lot of people consider them the highest standard. Not so. I am astounded that a lot of homes in Moore, OK had no anchor bolts much less hold-downs. Doubly astounded that the schools were unreinforced masonry.