Tornado Strikes Dallas, Sadly *Not* Destroying the Entire Fucking City

Just got some really strong storms in the Fort Worth area, which I slept right through.

But yeah, fuck Dallas, fucking Suit City.

You Dallas-hating-dickhead!!!

eddie wrote:You Dallas-hating-dickhead!!!

He's a Dallasist.

I Sorta feel the same way but I have a daughter there. She was less than a mile from it last night and had a friend and her baby crash there after the tornado damaged her home.

So I kinda want the city to not get destroyed.

Ben Reilly wrote:

Just got some really strong storms in the Fort Worth area, which I slept right through.

But yeah, fuck Dallas, fucking Suit City.

That video is pretty bloody terrifying.

Do they build houses in Dallas with better materials than they do in the likes of Oklahoma?

Les wrote:That video is pretty bloody terrifying.

Do they build houses in Dallas with better materials than they do in the likes of Oklahoma?

The capitalists do. Not sure about the unwashed people.

Eilzel wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:

Just got some really strong storms in the Fort Worth area, which I slept right through.

But yeah, fuck Dallas, fucking Suit City.

That video is pretty bloody terrifying.

Do they build houses in Dallas with better materials than they do in the likes of Oklahoma?

Same materials..People in Oklahoma are more likely to have storm shelters though.  

It's not practical to build a tornado proof home. It would be like living in a bomb shelter.  

The 3 that touched down yesterday didn't kill anyone and about 70 Ameicans die every year from one, so they are not as deadly as they look.  

Folks that have been within a block or two of one or taken a direct hit never forget them though.

Maddog wrote:

Eilzel wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:

Just got some really strong storms in the Fort Worth area, which I slept right through.

But yeah, fuck Dallas, fucking Suit City.

That video is pretty bloody terrifying.

Do they build houses in Dallas with better materials than they do in the likes of Oklahoma?

Same materials..People in Oklahoma are more likely to have storm shelters though.  

It's not practical to build a tornado proof home. It would be like living in a bomb shelter.  

The 3 that touched down yesterday didn't kill anyone and about 70 Ameicans die every year from one, so they are not as deadly as they look.  

Folks that have been within a block or two of one or taken a direct hit never forget them though.

I'm honestly ignorant to how damaging tornadoes can be. Lives is one thing, I imagine that more than most disasters tornadoes are pretty easy to see coming (unless at touch down point) and therefore easy to get away from. But in terms of property, if houses were made of brick or concrete, would they stand a better chance?

America builds houses mostly in wood, biggest users of Wood in the World,That's why most of 'em blow away in a strong breeze . Apart from saving the Tree's ,why not be sensible and BUILD THEM IN FUCKING BRICK ?

Construction techniques are more important than construction materials...

A well thought-out timber structure can stand up to severe windstorms (tornadoes, cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons..) better than shoddily constructed brick buildings (a well-sealed brick building can literaly explode when a lower pressure storm centre passes over..). Though, well-constructed brick, concrete, even adobe and mudbricks, will stand up better than timber or fibreboard claddings,  'everything else being equal'..

Even the slope of the roof matters --  roofs below an 11° slope are much more prone to be lifted off by vortexes forming over them with strong winds, whereas roofs angled above 22° stand up much better (have a look at how many shopping centres, schools and sports clubs will be unroofed --  while many houses around them escape " virtually unscathed"..).

Other construction features that produce more storm-resistant buildings include :

Substantial foundations and footings;
Bolting walls down well to those footings;
Adequate framework;
Adequate plywood as wall bracing and roof linings;
Proper cladding, well secured;
Corrugated steel or terracotta (clay tile) roofs, fixed properly;
Closed-in eaves;
Windows and doors properly fitted;
Good airflow and ventilation during storms (allowing air pressure to 'equalise' between inside and outside..).

It's not rocket science --  this information has been available for some decades..  However, it's also a basic truth that real estate in the middle of "tornado alley" should also be cheaper, most of the time --  and many people building in those areas might not be able to always afford better built homes (or equally often, may simply be too stupid or ignorant to want to build better..).

nicko wrote:America builds houses mostly in wood, biggest users of Wood in the World,That's why most of 'em blow away in a strong breeze . Apart from saving the Tree's ,why not be sensible and BUILD THEM IN FUCKING BRICK ?

Most houses here are brick.  At least homes built in the the past 75 years.  

Tornados will knock down a brick house, or at least take the roof off and expose people to flying debris.

It really depends on the strength. An F-1 and most homes sustain some minor damage. An F5 will destroy almost anything in its path.

Eilzel wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Same materials..People in Oklahoma are more likely to have storm shelters though.  

It's not practical to build a tornado proof home. It would be like living in a bomb shelter.  

The 3 that touched down yesterday didn't kill anyone and about 70 Ameicans die every year from one, so they are not as deadly as they look.  

Folks that have been within a block or two of one or taken a direct hit never forget them though.

I'm honestly ignorant to how damaging tornadoes can be. Lives is one thing, I imagine that more than most disasters tornadoes are pretty easy to see coming (unless at touch down point) and therefore easy to get away from. But in terms of property, if houses were made of brick or concrete, would they stand a better chance?

Most tornados cant be seen by most people because they are in thunderstorm with driving rain.  It depends where you are in relation to the storm.  Running from them is a bad idea. You hunker down, in an interior area, without windows and ride it out.

While you often cant see them, you will hear them.  They sound like freight trains.  

And with doppler radar, our weather folks can track circulation in the clouds. If you have TV or internet, you can keep pretty aware of one forming. We also have tornado sirens in cities that are just like air raid sirens from the movies.  Same concept applies when they go off.  

While tornados can be terrifying, flash floods kill more of us than tornados.

Original Quill wrote:

Les wrote:That video is pretty bloody terrifying.

Do they build houses in Dallas with better materials than they do in the likes of Oklahoma?

The capitalists do.  Not sure about the unwashed people.

They can always eat cake....

Fred Moletrousers wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

The capitalists do.  Not sure about the unwashed people.

They can always eat cake....

As in shortcake?

Here is very well built, custom brick home, in a higher end part of North Dallas. The walls are still up, but the home is probably a total loss.

nicko wrote:America builds houses mostly in wood, biggest users of Wood in the World,That's why most of 'em blow away in a strong breeze . Apart from saving the Tree's ,why not be sensible and BUILD THEM IN FUCKING BRICK ?

The difference is not the home building, nick.  The difference is in the storms that come down from the eastern slope of the Colorado Rockies and meet the warm air of the Gulf of Mexico:

Parade wrote:According to Professor Scott Steiger of SUNY Oswego’s Earth Sciences department, it all comes down to geography—an unlucky combination of natural features that makes the Midwest tornado central. “You have the Gulf of Mexico to the south, which is a lot of warm, unstable air that moves northward over Oklahoma. And to the west you have the Rocky Mountains. On the east side of Colorado, the mountains create a low-pressure system, and that draws the Gulf of Mexico air north.”

Horizontal differences in air temperature, Steiger explains, can create an effect called wind shear—air at higher altitudes moving faster than, or in a different direction from, air closer to the ground. This can produce rotating, horizontal tubes of air (think of the fast air on top tumbling over the slower air on the bottom). Essentially, those horizontal tubes are tornadoes waiting to happen. If a storm front forms that pushes the tubes upwards, tornadoes are what you can get.

When it comes to the geography of the Midwest, “you have all the ingredients,” Steiger told us. “There are other places around the world that have similar geography—southern Europe, parts of China—but nowhere near as ideal. There’s a big bullseye in the middle of the United States.”

The warm zone created by the Gulf of Mexico is also frequently the engine for +4 hurricanes that hit from western Florida down through the Yucatan Peninsula.

Tornadoes do also occur in the Southern hemisphere --  but nowhere near as frequently or as severe as in Northern areas...

Those places in "tornado alley" parts of North America, and some central parts of Asia and Russia, have strong cold winds heading south unimpeded from the Arctic and mountain regions..

Whereas down here, countries like Australia, Argentina amd the southern parts of Africa have this big pond called the Southern Ocean, acting as a big "heat sink" in reverse, so that the winds coming off Antarctica are warmed a little, while losing some of their force.  Even when tornadoes do form over southern and central parts of Oz, most of the time it will be in remote and uninhabited places..


Cyclones in northern Oz are another matter again --  two of the four most severe cyclones recorded have been off Western Australia and Qld in recent years, the other two being off southern parts of the USA.

And as Maddog pointed out above --  more people will be killed by flooding afterwards, (and more stock losses, buildings damaged or destroyed, and overall financial damage as well..), than by the winds during the storm itself.