Maybe a brick house would have been a better choice

I saw this last night on the news.

Wondering if a brick house is better in a tornado - anyone know? We are planning to move to a brick house in Texas (if it happens).

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Who ever knows with a Twister?

When I was living in the Midwest the soundest advice I got about being in one was to hug the toilet bowl-- it's got so much wiring and tubing and snaky attachemts you are assured to not get sucked up.

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Gala wrote:

Who ever knows with a Twister?

When I was living in the Midwest the soundest advice I got about being in one was to hug the toilet bowl-- it's got so much wiring and tubing and snaky attachemts you are assured to not get sucked up.

Great advice - note to self "hug toilet" - I've done that before but not because of a twister.

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If your toilet is wired, then you're spending FAR too much time in there.

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Linkat wrote:

Great advice - note to self "hug toilet" - I've done that before but not because of a twister.

We call that "hugging the bowl."

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Brick is good, but metal is better, which is why I live in an Airstream mobile home. I haven't really done any research on the matter. But intuition tells me God will spare us, the humble residents of Town and Country Trailer Park.

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http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/7458/whitetrashbs6.jpg

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Gala wrote:

Who ever knows with a Twister?

When I was living in the Midwest the soundest advice I got about being in one was to hug the toilet bowl-- it's got so much wiring and tubing and snaky attachemts you are assured to not get sucked up.

Heh, who ever told you that didn't know much about toilets. There are only two little bolts that hold them down! Laughing

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Linkat wrote:

Wondering if a brick house is better in a tornado - anyone know? We are planning to move to a brick house in Texas (if it happens).

It doesn't matter much if you are in the direct path. A brick house will blow apart just as a wood-sided house will. Most brick houses biult in the last 40 years aren't true brick houses anyway. The brick is just a facade. There are stud walls behind them. Wink

If you don't get a direct hit brick does tend to hold up better to getting hit by flying debris though.

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the only reason to hug a toilet during a tornado is so you can stick your head inside when its torn off its little mounts and that way youre easier to identify

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I can't watch the video. Too terrible for the people with the house.

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My nephew the Methodist minister was home alone when his home was hit by a tornada between Avoca and Lueders Texas recently. He said he grabbed a bunch of pillows and got into his bathtub. The storm removed all his shingles and destroyed some sheds. He survived it.

When I was a child in Texas, we had a storm cellar we went to when there were tornada warnings.

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I have a question about proper tornado procedure.

I always thought you were supposed to open the windows during a tornado -- otherwise the air pressure from the outside would cause your house to collapse.

But the other day, I heard this weatherman dude on the radio say that you really shouldn't open the windows during a tornadie.

So......which is it? Confused

Anybody know?

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Stray Cat wrote:

I have a question about proper tornado procedure.

I always thought you were supposed to open the windows during a tornado -- otherwise the air pressure from the outside would cause your house to collapse.

But the other day, I heard this weatherman dude on the radio say that you really shouldn't open the windows during a tornadie.

So......which is it?

Anybody know?

"Myth or Misconception #4 .... Opening windows to equalize air pressure will save a roof, or even a home, from destruction by a tornado.

The idea that moving one thin pane of glass is going to protect a roof or house from one of the most violent natural forces on the planet has a certain absurdity about it. It is probably born of wishful thinking and faulty logic, stemming from the need to do something .... anything. In reality, opening windows is a dangerous and useless waste of time, and could actually be harmful to the house.

To get to the very center of a mature tornado (where the pressure may be low enough to cause some explosive effects), the windows would have to endure 100-200 mph winds in the walls of the vortex. Those winds would be laden with boards, stones, cars, trees, telephone poles, and the neighbor's roof shingles as well as wind pressure of more than 100 pounds per square foot. This barrage would blow more than enough ventilation holes in the building to allow any pressure difference to be equalized.

Even with the windows closed, most houses and commercial buildings have enough openings to vent the pressure difference in the time that it takes for a tornado to pass. The engineering team at Texas Tech's Institute for Disaster Research (Minor et al., 1977) point out that the pressure drop inside a tornado with 260 mph winds is only about 10%, or just 1.4 pounds per square inch. Most buildings can vent this difference through its normal openings in about three seconds. That is sufficient time even if the tornado is moving forward at a very rapid 60 mph. In the real world, the discussion is pointless. That violent a tornado would totally blow apart a house before the central low pressure ever arrived. Venting of air to relieve pressure would not be an issue.

If the home owner opens the wrong window, air can rush in and exert pressure on the structure from the inside--like blowing air into a balloon. It is unlikely that the resident knows where the construction weak points are. In addition, the wind fields in a passing tornado are very complex and constantly changing. It is not possible to predict the strongest direction of attack. The best advice from every engineer with whom the author has ever discussed this is to leave the windows alone and get into the basement or other shelter as fast as possible. One should not think first of the house roof, but of the impact of one's death on one's family, or of one's self unnecessarily crippled or scarred for life.

I don't recall the exact origin of the "window opening" advice, but do recall that the original advice was to open windows in both the front and the back of the house. Theoretically, this would allow air to move through the house, and reduce any buildup of interior pressure. Somehow, the advice was altered to include only the windows on the north side of the house, (away from the tornado). There is no evidence that any opening of windows ever helped to hold a roof in place. The best advice is still to forget the windows and get to a shelter. "

http://www.tornadoproject.com/myths/myths.htm

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Thanks for the info, fishin! That was interesting.

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Maybe a brick house would have been a better choice

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