Brick exterior walls and tornados (Dallas, San Antonio: buying a home, buying, tornado)

[Zhang Fei]

Do brick exterior walls do anything against tornados? Just wondering if that should be a consideration while buying a home...

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by Zhang Fei

Do brick exterior walls do anything against tornados? Just wondering if that should be a consideration while buying a home...

I'm no expert, but brick walls would help against blowing debris. As for the tornado itself, I believe that it usually sucks the roof off first. If the tornado is an F4 or F5, then brick walls will not stand up to that force of nature.

[bdlee73]

I saw a show on on the Discovery Channel (or one of those other documentary channels) that showed how easily a 2x4 will penetrate a brick wall- they used an air cannon to simulate the force of a tornado. I think if an f4 or f5 came through, its "game over" regardless of if your house is brick or not. Several years ago, an f5 went through some homes near San Antonio and wiped the foundations completely clean.

[momof2dfw]

The one in Jarrell? That one left nothing in its path. They said something later about what a safe room would have done in that one but I do not recall if it would have made it or not. I think the one in Jarrell would have sucked a tornado shelter out of the ground.

[bdlee73]

I do think it was Jerrell- 27 people killed and 200+ mph winds. Have you seen the documentary about what would happen if an f5 went through downtown Dallas? Pretty scary. It plays on either the History or National Geographic channel on occassion.

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by bdlee73

I do think it was Jerrell- 27 people killed and 200+ mph winds. Have you seen the documentary about what would happen if an f5 went through downtown Dallas? Pretty scary. It plays on either the History or National Geographic channel on occassion.

That F5 tornado even removed the road and the grass in that area. It is a good thing F5's are rare.

[robinhood]

Has anyone noticed that during the most recent years, the tornado warnings have decreased during the Spring seasons? During the years of 1997-2000, it seemed that there were warnings nearly every night of the week. We lost much sleep during the nights that funnels were spotted during these Springs. However, in the past five years we have only had maybe a couple of warnings each Spring. Has anyone heard the reason for this trend in the weather patterns? Of course, I'm coming from North Texas. So this observation may not apply to the whole state.

[i_catch_tree_bass]

Originally Posted by Zhang Fei

Do brick exterior walls do anything against tornados? Just wondering if that should be a consideration while buying a home...

I'm not sure that it will even be a consideration, as the vast majority of homes in North Texas are brick.

[Zhang Fei]

Originally Posted by i_catch_tree_bass

I'm not sure that it will even be a consideration, as the vast majority of homes in North Texas are brick.

That's an interesting observation. Here in the northeast, a lot of the detached housing isn't brick, and yet Texas housing is, on average, so much cheaper. I guess most of the value in the northeast must be in the land.

[stargazer]

Yes it was Jarrel and it still haunts me to this day. I remember Mike Gooseman the day before on CBS weather saying that 2 fronts were going to hit combine over the central texas area and he said it is not good. The next day after that tornado killed so many, I watched Mike Gooseman come on and had such a terrible look on his face. I will never forget it. That tornado hit a subdivision with whole families inside. It ripped the foundation out of the ground. I believe that a basesment that is dug deep within the ground would have saved many. Brick can't hold up to tornadoes too much of the time, they will rip right though. We had a bad tornado go through Lancaster Texas a few years ago not far from our home at the time. That tornado went through the downtown and tore right through many historic business's made of brick. It was very eerie to me..... that is the only part I don't like about here mainly, though it is very rare for one to hit your home. We don't have tornadoes everyday.