Prayers and thoughts for those in Oklahoma

[green-lantern]

Thadd, quit arguing with the tornado survivor! Lol

Nothing is going to stop an f5.

[IPD]

Thadd, quit arguing with the tornado survivor! Lol

Nothing is going to stop an f5.

...what if we built a giant wooden badger....

[green-lantern]

we don't need no stinking badgers

[j2k4]

Kinda mystified about the news these schools had no tornado shelters.

Word is the schools are '60s-vintage, which would/should put them squarely in the middle of the Cold-War era.

Every school I ever attended (two of them built in the '60s) was designated a bomb-shelter, with underground cover.

Wtf was the mindset in Oklahoma in the '60s?

Weren't they subject to Cold War paranoia like everyone else?

And what about twisters?

[$$$PIT]

i'm sure not all of the damage could be prevented. that said, over on this side of the pond, walls aren't made on 16" centers with 2x4's. every interior wall is brick/cinderblock. houses here will take a LOT more punishment before giving up the ghost.

IF you STILL think your houses would have made it through this, you can watch Mile Wide Tornado on Discovery channel tonight and reconsider.

[onebadmollafolla]

IF you STILL think your houses would have made it through this, you can watch Mile Wide Tornado on Discovery channel tonight and reconsider.

No no, IPD is the expert because he is in Germany. Even though F5 tornados can rip roads off the ground a standing German built house would survive just fine. Tis' but a flesh wound.

[IPD]

completely missing my point, yet again.

let me see if i can rephrase it in terms you can understand:

if an f5 tornado DIRECTLY hits your house, it's pretty much done for--regardless of how it was built. i'm not concerned with that. what i am concerned with is the distance from epicenter required to survive any given swath of tornado destruction. tornadoes are not just some magical entity where there are 270mph winds inside and 2 feet away, it's 0mph. the periphery of a tornado can be just as destructive to buildings--especially if they are of lower-grade construction. the point i'm making is that higher-quality building codes would NOT eliminate tornado damage, but it would certainly reduce is--vice building constructed with vinyl siding & 2x4's (for example).

likewise, as i alluded to earlier, earthquakes have a similar issue. now a 9.0 is likely to destroy pretty much everything, that's a given. however, the further from epicenter you get, the lower the number on the richter scale. a better constructed building may be able to withstand a 7.0 unscathed, whereas a lower quality building may be facing significant damage at 5.0.

we can't prevent natural disasters. and at the same time, (in my opinion) we can do something to potentially mitigate some of the damage. it's not an all-or-nothing equation.

[onebadmollafolla]

completely missing my point, yet again.

let me see if i can rephrase it in terms you can understand:

if an f5 tornado DIRECTLY hits your house, it's pretty much done for--regardless of how it was built. i'm not concerned with that. what i am concerned with is the distance from epicenter required to survive any given swath of tornado destruction. tornadoes are not just some magical entity where there are 270mph winds inside and 2 feet away, it's 0mph. the periphery of a tornado can be just as destructive to buildings--especially if they are of lower-grade construction. the point i'm making is that higher-quality building codes would NOT eliminate tornado damage, but it would certainly reduce is--vice building constructed with vinyl siding & 2x4's (for example).

likewise, as i alluded to earlier, earthquakes have a similar issue. now a 9.0 is likely to destroy pretty much everything, that's a given. however, the further from epicenter you get, the lower the number on the richter scale. a better constructed building may be able to withstand a 7.0 unscathed, whereas a lower quality building may be facing significant damage at 5.0.

we can't prevent natural disasters. and at the same time, (in my opinion) we can do something to potentially mitigate some of the damage. it's not an all-or-nothing equation.

[IPD]

mollafollathetrolla.