RE: "How to Survive a Disaster"

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/9/2008 5:12:26 AM

slaveboyforyou

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quote:

A friend of mine once went to the US in the hope of seeing a tornado - 'couldn't get my head 'round why anyone would want to get caught up in a situation where trees and cars are flying around the head.......needless to say, she paid nigh on £3,000 and saw not so much as a sniff of a tornado.

I live in one of the most tornado prone areas of the country, and I have only seen one tornado in my life. When I saw it, it was at night from about a mile away. So I didn't really see a funnel cloud. I saw sparks from power lines getting snapped, and I could hear it.

Several tornados have went through here this year, and I haven't seen one yet. I don't know why anyone would fork out a lot of money to go on a tornado chasing expedition.

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/9/2008 6:16:12 AM

Irishknight

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Having seen a couple at the waaaayy to frakkin close point, chasing one is a crazy idea. We had one lift the roof from our house when I was a kid and then drop it back down . Screwed up a lotta shit and we never did get all the leaks patched.

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/9/2008 6:29:52 AM

kittinSol

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Which brings to mind the problem of American building standards. I've seen how the average home is built, and it's scary: matchsticks constructions and poor materials... A lot of houses are like glorified garden sheds: how do builders get away with this? I would have thought in storm-prone areas it would be bordering on illegal to build a house with a wood frame. No?

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/9/2008 6:45:20 AM

Irishknight

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Metal frame buildings fall in tornadoes too. We had a concrete block building near where I grew up literally explode from the pressure difference the tornado caused. Wood frame buildings often do just as well as others if put together well. Brick buildings by the dozen got totaled just a couple of years ago in Iowa City, Ia. Unless you have the money to build a real castle, it will probably be inferior in some way to a tornado.
On the up side of stick built houses, a tornado sheared off part of my friend's house while leaving the rest standing. They were able to repair and rebuild a lot easier than if they had used other materials. They lost two rooms and built three rooms in their places.

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/9/2008 7:11:19 AM

kittinSol

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I'd still like to see more stone, brick and mortar and CONCRETE materials, damnit.

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/9/2008 8:21:41 AM

Aynne

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Hey kittin,

When we were traveling down south we were shocked at the standards for building down there. Things that would never stand up even in just a typical New England winter, let alone a serious weather incident. Structrual integrity is as important as design aesthetics and I think a federal building code standard as well as mandatory licensing for every single state is a start. Do you know in Maine there is not such thing a licensing for general contractors? The licensed tradesman I hire, electrical, heating, plumbing, they are required to be licensed, but not the GC? How ass backwards is that? The only real thing the homeowner can do to protect themselves is check references, verify insurances, and do a check with the BBB.

edited to add link for the naysayers...

http://www.contractors-license.org/me/me.htm

quote:

ORIGINAL: kittinSol

I'd still like to see more stone, brick and mortar and CONCRETE materials, damnit.

< Message edited by Aynne -- 6/9/2008 8:52:18 AM >

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/11/2008 6:00:22 PM

TheGorenSociety

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Hmm, well, once we close on the new farm down here in Fla. I plan on taking the mobile home that is on it and using it as fire wood. I have planned a completely underground house.It is above the flood plain and ground water. I went through Andrew in 92 lost everything. Our house then was a block reinforced, a tractor trailer came through it.

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/11/2008 7:47:55 PM

Irishknight

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheGorenSociety

Hmm, well, once we close on the new farm down here in Fla. I plan on taking the mobile home that is on it and using it as fire wood. I have planned a completely underground house.It is above the flood plain and ground water. I went through Andrew in 92 lost everything. Our house then was a block reinforced, a tractor trailer came through it.

Its not that the wind is blowing. It's what the wind is blowing.
Ron White

If you'll look at some of these poor stick built homes down here, many are 50 to 100 years old. Many are even older. A friend of mine from the Navy lives in a plantation house that has been in his family for over 100 years. It is near enough to the coast that it takes on the occassional hurricane. Stick built isn't as weak as some folks think.
Don't get me wrong, I still plan to build out of stone but thats because plywood castles look silly.

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RE: "How to Survive a Disaster" - 6/11/2008 9:24:51 PM

DomAviator

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Just an observation on the stick built thing... (Dusting off my old engineering degree, which I never used LOL) Contrary to popular belief concrete is a MUCH weaker building material than wood. Concrete has COMPRESSIVE (Smooshing) strength but it has terrible TENSILE (Stretching) strength and practically no SHEAR (sideways opposing forces) strength... In fact if you scratch it, you can snap a concrete slab or block with your bare hands... The only thing that gives concrete any usable building strength is reinforcing steel embedded in it. (and that steel starts to fail by corrosion from the minute you pour the concrete over it.) A wood framed structure is more than strong enough for most residential framing applications and it has a better resistence to wind , pressure differentials (as in a hurricane / tornado) or seismic forces than any masonary building. The fact is that a "brick shithouse" requires a lot of care to keep it standing... The brick spalls with each freeze thaw cycle, the mortar must be tucked and repointed etc....

That being said - I chose steel framing for my house. It offers better wind resistance, wont mold if flooded, is not vulnerable to termites, etc. A Katrina type flooding would only be a gut and do new drywall job on my home. The framing would be undamaged.

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