Evans’ Rag
Vol 3 Issue 50
Pre-existing house corner—photo by William E Evans©2011
Natural disasters are in the news. The late-season line of tornadoes that ripped through the South and Midwest last week was a tragic testament to the destructive power of wind.
Tornadoes, much as they’ve been studied, are still insufficiently understood.
This week’s blog mentions ‘wind shear’ in discussing the work of detailing a single place where we live. But these tornadoes were of a different degree—so we all hope.
The Amazon warehouse collapse in Edwardsville, Illinois is generating an investigation, as it should, with six deaths occurring there.
Major structures, unlike single family homes, should survive sufficiently to protect the occupants—though it depends on when the structure was built, and how well. The public only is made aware of structural engineering when they fail.
Today, in many jurisdictions major structures fall under a category requiring ‘special inspections’ to insure the structure at minimum meets the building codes—plural, as there is no single nationwide building code—they vary state to state, and in more rural areas, training and retaining good building inspectors can be challenging.
After Hurricane Andrew (Cat-5) in 1992, the state of Florida greatly tightened its building codes and raised the ‘design wind speed.’ Lessons learned the hard way.
Though, designing to protect against hurricanes won’t necessarily insure shelter against a tornado erupting from the atmosphere.
It seems we’re always one step behind the last worst storm.