Why do people in tornado alley build their houses out of timber ?

Rabidlamb · 15-03-2012 04:09PM #1

Do they not learn the fable of the 3 little pigs as children ?.
Every year the same thing, carnage strewn everywhere, I'm going to the mid-west to become a brick salesman.
Yeeee hawww

thenightrider · 15-03-2012 04:13PM

Id say because its cheaper then building with brick's that will also get blown down.

stupidusername · 15-03-2012 04:15PM

thenightrider wrote: »

Id say because its cheaper then building with brick's that will also get blown down.

why build your house in an area known to get tornadoes in the first place?

15-03-2012 04:16PM

Ive often thought about this,
A house made of reinforced cast concrete would not be blown down.
although the roof might get ripped off

SEPT 23 1989 · 15-03-2012 04:17PM

Because they are American

mackg · 15-03-2012 04:18PM

stupidusername wrote: »

why build your house in an area known to get tornadoes in the first place?

extreme xenophobia?

John Doe1 · 15-03-2012 04:18PM

Donegal?

M cebee · 15-03-2012 04:21PM

always wondered

seems crazy

Brendog · 15-03-2012 04:22PM

because you touch yourself at night

MadYaker · 15-03-2012 04:23PM

Flying debris does as much damage as the tornadoes themselves. Nobodies house will still be standing after a flying bus hits it at 150mph.... Building homes that would be tornado proof would be ridiculously expensive and just not practical. It might be possible to make the walls resistant to small tornadoes but your house would still be gutted or completely destroyed by flying debris.

A house made of reinforced cast concrete wouldn't last 10 seconds if hit by even a medium sized tornado. Plenty of the worlds population are under constant threat of natural disaster. Were a bit detatched from it here but people just live with it. Most of california's population live on a fault line.

thenightrider · 15-03-2012 04:26PM

stupidusername wrote: »

why build your house in an area known to get tornadoes in the first place?

Thats what i was thinking but op asked why they make them out of wood im sure there is load's of reasons why they build them there but i know i would not.

Rabidlamb · 15-03-2012 04:41PM

MadYaker wrote: »

Flying debris does as much damage as the tornadoes themselves. Nobodies house will still be standing after a flying bus hits it at 150mph.... Building homes that would be tornado proof would be ridiculously expensive and just not practical. It might be possible to make the walls resistant to small tornadoes but your house would still be gutted or completely destroyed by flying debris.

Plenty of 100 mph hurricanes hit Ireland & the worst that happens is a slate blows off.
I'm not sure an extra 50% could do that much more damage.

o1s1n · 15-03-2012 04:45PM

Rabidlamb wrote: »

I'm not sure an extra 50% could do that much more damage.

It would if it were carrying a bus.

Logical Fallacy · 15-03-2012 04:52PM

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Plenty of 100 mph hurricanes hit Ireland & the worst that happens is a slate blows off.
I'm not sure an extra 50% could do that much more damage.

There is a big difference between a hurricane and a tornado though. Hurricane winds in F5 conditions max out about 155mph, F5 Tornado maxes out at about 320mph.

Building your houses of brick won't really do much to help you...the roof will come off in a strong enough tornado regardless and the tornado will just level the house.

The tend to build houses from materials and in a manner that is cheaper and easier to rebuild.

MadYaker · 15-03-2012 04:53PM

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Plenty of 100 mph hurricanes hit Ireland & the worst that happens is a slate blows off.
I'm not sure an extra 50% could do that much more damage.

Tornadoes are completely different to hurricanes. Do you know what a tornado is? Its a rotating column of air connected to the earth at the bottom and a cloud at the top. I don't fully understand the physics (something to do with their rotation i guess) but one of the reasons they are so destructive is because they create areas of extremely low pressures around them so as they approach buildings the buildings simply explode and obviously if one hits a building it gets minced.

Rabidlamb · 15-03-2012 04:56PM

Alright, there maybe some science in your explanations.
But, why doesn't God protect them ?.

Logical Fallacy · 15-03-2012 04:58PM

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Alright, there maybe some science in your explanations.
But, why doesn't God protect them ?.

Because God and Science don't mix.

They dated for a while, but it ended really badly.

I kind of the get the impression you just want to imply that these folk are stupid, so when the whole "wooden houses har har har" thing fell apart your rolling with the Jesus angle now.

Just so you know, i am completely cool with that.:D

Logical Fallacy · 15-03-2012 05:01PM

sugarman wrote: »

They should just build them from Lego...

...can easily rebuild them & if your ever bored of the way the gaf looks you can take it apart and rebuilt it. Even move it down the road if you wanted.

Plus renovations would be easy and fun for all the family.

Best idea in this thread yet tbh.

MadYaker · 15-03-2012 05:04PM

To be honest I admire people who live their lives in places like tornado alley. It takes a lot of strength to pick up the pieces after everything you own is reduced to a pile of rubble and your car is up a tree 6 miles away. I guess they if they've lived there all their lives they don't want to move. I think if Galway was in tornado alley id still want to live here. Having said that I have no idea what its like to lose everything like some of those people in north carolina did....

Nothingbetter2d · 15-03-2012 05:05PM

the people in tornado alley need to build a few mountain strips to break the wind (pardon the pun)

strobe · 15-03-2012 05:05PM

I'd imagine it's cost mainly. Timber is dirt cheap in the US. Land in tornado alley is cheaper than in similar areas (high quality cheaper than usual farm land etc). So you can have a house and lots of good land for a fraction of the price you could be paying.

Plus if you're unlucky enough to catch an F4/5 tornado your brick house won't necessarily do a whole lot. Your roof will be torn off and everything inside smashed to bits and a flying bus stop sign will make mince of any brick wall it gets fired at 90mph against. The strucurtural damage could mean that while your house would still be standing at the end it would be unsafe and would need to be levelled and re-built in anyway rather than just repaired.

It's just risk versus reward. A tornado with the strength to tear down a timber house is rare enough and one happening to touch down right in the area your home is built is rarer still. There are timber framed homes in 'tornado alley' that have been standing for 70+ years. So it's a roll of the dice, it pays off for some people and some people aren't as lucky. For the unlucky ones they can still claim on their insurance and throw up another relatively cheap timber framed house on their kick ass land.

Duckworth_Luas · 15-03-2012 05:08PM

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Alright, there maybe some science in your explanations.
But, why doesn't God protect them ?.

God only protects Zoroastrians, most people living in Tornado Alley are protestants. This house was owned by the only Zoroastrian in his town!

wexie · 15-03-2012 05:09PM

o1s1n wrote: »

It would if it were carrying a bus.

There was a guy down in Florida who said that, at the age of 53 years old, he was in good enough physical condition to withstand the wind, rain and hail of a force-3 hurricane. Now, let me explain somethin' to ya: it isn't that the wind is blowin', it's what the wind is blowin'. If you get hit by a Volvo, it doesn't matter how many sit-ups you did that morning....
(Ron White)

token101 · 15-03-2012 05:49PM

Maybe if they prayed to Baby Jesus more this wouldn't happen.

El Horseboxo · 15-03-2012 06:46PM

I grew up in Kansas slap bang in the middle of tornado alley. Had a few close calls at times and seen counties around me levelled. But no direct hits on our home. Which was made of brick by the way. I had previously lived in a wooden house and I preferred that. Doesn't matter if it's brick or wood though. A direct hit from anything over F2 and your house is getting destroyed. So might as well construct it with cheaper material so rebuilding costs are lower if you need to repair after damage. The clean up is also easier and you don't have to worry about flying blocks of concrete.

A huge part of the US can experience tornadoes. Pretty much the entire central plains right up to the Canadian border and right down to the Mexican one. Also a large portion of the south east. Tornado alley is just one section. You also have Dixie alley, Hoosier alley and Carolina alley. You can't just avoid living there when you've a population as big as America does. Not when the odds of having your house destroyed by them are so low. You only hear about the bad ones over here. Never about the thousands that touch down in open fields and do no to very little damage. Still the risk keeps housing costs down and it's no surprise or coincidence that a majority of the poorest people in the US live in areas prone to tornadoes.

CrazyRabbit · 15-03-2012 07:08PM

Only a extremely tiny percentage of houses in a tornado-prone state are destroyed by tornado's each year.

If you have a million houses in tornado alley and 200 gets destroyed per year, it's easy to have an "It won't happen to me" view of it.

longhalloween · 15-03-2012 07:42PM

MadYaker wrote: »

Tornadoes are completely different to hurricanes.

I thought tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones were the same thing, just depended where in the world they occur?

Logical Fallacy · 15-03-2012 07:48PM

longhalloween wrote: »

I thought tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones were the same thing, just depended where in the world they occur?

Nope, the difference between Tornados and Hurricanes is pretty big, one being basically a giant storm and the other being a highly localised event that manifests as a tunnel of rapidly moving air.

Tornado's can be called cyclones though, as they were called just that for a long time in a lot of places.

Big Nasty · 15-03-2012 07:54PM

longhalloween wrote: »

I thought tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones were the same thing, just depended where in the world they occur?

You say tomato I say tomato!

I hit an F5 once - it was refreshing!

Pandora2 · 15-03-2012 07:59PM

longhalloween wrote: »

I thought tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones were the same thing, just depended where in the world they occur?

I knew it would come down to this the old tornadoes v. hurricanes v. cyclones debate:D

mrkite77 · 15-03-2012 08:00PM

Rabidlamb wrote: »

I'm going to the mid-west to become a brick salesman.

I guess you can get your start by collecting all the bricks from the ground after a tornado destroys a brick building.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/spring041211/s_s14_09149561.jpg

http://www.wgbh.org/imageassets/bricks.jpg

Why do people in tornado alley build their houses out of timber ?

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