Prepping For Tornado Season

Last May an outbreak of tornadoes ripped through parts of Oklahoma and Kansas, destroying entire neighborhoods and killing 49 people. Following the storm, the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent a team of engineers to study why so many buildings failed to stand up to the wind. They also looked at the buildings that suffered little damage, in an effort to see why they survived.

They concluded that “in all but the most extreme events, significant tornado damage can be avoided through measures to strengthen homes and other structures.”

FEMA Director James Lee Witt told CBS Early Show Bryant Gumbel that only one percent of tornado damage happens in the center of the storm. People can bolster their homes to prevent damage that occurs in a tornado’s fringe area.

The FEMA team concluded that the best means to reduce loss of life and minimize personal injury during a tornado is to take refuge in a specifically designed tornado shelter.

Witt told the story of a woman who survived at the center of a tornado because she had built a concrete safe room within her house.

He also recommended that people who have garages with double doors might want to consider refitting their homes with two single garage doors.

Communities should have adequate building codes ”and enforce their building codes,” Witt recommended. ”If they will do that, we’ll have less tornado damage in the future.”

Other suggestions include:

• fix the anchoring of manufactured homes
  
• modify construction techniques to address wind
  
• change architectural features to reduce the potential for windborne debris.
  
• modify how bricks are used and attached to each other.
  
• reinforce chimneys