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Question
#51104. romeomikegolf
asks:
With the United States being so susceptible to tornados and hurricanes, why are so many houses built of wood?
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lothruin
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Partly because wood is a much cheaper material than brick. Also because in the event of a catastrophic storm, often the winds are high enough that even brick homes are severely damaged. In spring of this year a town about an hour form me was almost completely destroyed, with only about 2 buildings remaining intact. The storm that went over had winds in excess of 145mph in the storm cell itself, and the tornado which destroyed the town, brick, wood and concrete buildings alike, had winds in excess of 210 mph.
Though your stand a better chance of your home surviving in the event of a storm, a good chance still exists that it will not. In the end, the costs of constructing a brick home are offset by the still-slim chance the home will ever be hit by such a storm at all and the fact that most of the US states require that one owns homeowner's insurance to cover damages in the event of such a storm. While the loss of personal belongings and one's home is always difficult, most homeowners will recover a good amount of the money they had invested in the home, and can begin anew.
A question much similar to this one was posted in the forums a while back, after Charley went through, only in a much more condescending tone, and I responded to that person, who is from the UK, that I'm not sure even a sturdy brick UK home would survive such a storm without damage. No home can really be built to survive the devastating winds and water in storms of that nature, and so I think we build what we can afford and get good insurance.
Sep 20 04, 1:40 PM
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Buck540
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And, although tornados and hurricanes make for big news only a small fraction of US homes are actually damaged by them.
Much worse problems are fires and flooding - problems that occur all over the world, not just the US.
Sep 22 04, 7:47 AM
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