How to prevent tornado damage

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The way to prevent property damage and loss of life from tornadoes is to build a string of trailer parks lined up on a mostly north south line starting at the Gulf Coast and heading north to Canada. The tornadoes will be attracted to the trailer parks and follow them in a straight line no point of which is to be located in a population center. By the time the winds get to Canada they will peter out.

ruveyn

Funny every time I hear it.

I never understand why we don't make tornado-proof homes yet. It's not hard. Thick walls designed to let wind flow around the structure. Vents to allow the negative pressure to equalize rather than have the building explode.

It is expensive, though. And does the proposed solution really work as well as its advocates claim?

I'm sure a lot better than your life's belongings being strewn across half the county.

i am very much afraid i don't have the english vocabulary to explain this but:
a good solution would be to anchor the roof of your house to its foundations( that would have to be some deep enough concrete block with in-set railings of metal ( huh the twisted steel ropes?)
my step father builds wooden houses in a hurricane prone region ( the carribeans) and they work .
yes , wood.
i think that lowers the resistance to the wind a bit and the house bends,thus doesn't break. I'm no architect ( or english speaker) but i've seen it in action !

You are describing what is called CBS construction (Concrete Block and Steel) which was the standard in Florida for many years. The walls and roof are anchored into the foundation. Theoretically, you can flip the house in the air and land it on its foundation and it would hold together. No wood except in the roof. Walls are concrete blocks with steel studs. Very sturdy. Add on a ceramic tile roof and withstanding hurricanes up to Category 4 is no sweat so long as you are not in a flood-prone area.

I grew up in such a home which got hit by a tornado...minimal cosmetic damage. Other such homes fared about as well. My dad added an overhang for the patio, but he opened up the roof and tied the overhang into the roof members. He also had the corner of the patio overhang attached to a 20' iron beam sunk halfway into the ground with crisscrossing members at the bottom. You could tell from the plaster cracks in the ceiling where the tornado TRIED to rip the roof off by it's weakest point, but failed.

Hence why I think making "tornado proof" homes is quite attainable.

This is actually a myth. The pressure difference between the outside of the structure and the inside is negligible. Structures are not generally airtight. It's the wind that does the damage.

the flood is taken care of too. the wooden part of the house stands on pillars that dig into the foundations, up to the roof. then more for safety points. so the house is: above the ground, anchored under the ground, and yes our walls are wood, i lived in it through at least 3 hurricanes, and i swear it holds tight. the trees outside were jealous. our patio runs all around the house, btw, and the beams seem to be what you are referring to. it looks very similar indeed, i was weary about the wood at first though and i know i would feel safer surrounded by concrete, but i does work.

Well, yes and no. Many houses "explode" from the pressure difference, but that's mostly because many houses are just wood parts setting on top of each other via gravity and some nails. Even though not airtight, a massive rush of pressure from inside to outside helps pull the structure apart. If you build a place strong, you want a way for pressure to have an outlet to de-stress the structure.