Tornados in the south

[DonP]

I know that these tornados are seriously powerful, but what sort of houses are they in that area? When I went to the US years ago, I thought the houses were, um, well, not very substantial. Would solid brick houses, like we have over here, stand up to the wind better? I realise there'd be no roof left, or windows, and they'd take a battering, but there wouldn't be just a slab like mentioned above, would there?

What I'm trying to say is, if you live in a region plagued by tornados, why build a house made of paper? I know I'd rather spend a bit of money building a solid house, than be looking at a space where my life used to be, however high the odds were against being hit like that.

Some of those videos are fucking frightening though, it must be hell waiting for a storm to pass, knowing there's nothing you can do but wait and pray.

My house is brick but there's no way it would stand up to those winds. They can toss semi's at the least. In my book that's some pretty serious force.

About the best you can do is get to the basement if you have one and kiss everything topside "goodbye".

I was in Nashville when the winds hit at a Hampton Inn. I was wondering while watching the news what one of these could do to the hotel.

[Robert Hendrix]

Take it from experience, it's not always a matter of THAT the wind is blowing, it's also WHAT the wind is blowing. If a car flies into your brick house, it's gonna fall.
Tornados do some crazy shit. I remember a trip to Lubbock TX some 20 years after the tornado that nearly leveled the town. I saw a license plate half buried in a tree. I mentioned in to a freind if mine that lived through it, she showed me some pictures one was a drinking straw that was stuck in a tree in front of her house. There was another one of a corvette that was sitting on top of a house, just like someone had parked it there. Crazy stuff.

[Newc]

Yeah, it ain't the wind so much as what else it's blowing around. The 2-story brick home I mentioned earlier had a manufactured home next door. The steel frame for that landed in my neighbor's field, and was twisted around itself like those magnet ribbons you see on everyone's cars.

[Rsmacker]

I appreciate that it's not the wind itself, and that even a solid brick house is not going to survive unscathed. From what I can gather, however, houses over there seem to be less substantial than houses over here. (Although, some of the Micky Mouse houses that get thrown up these days look shit to me, not like proper houses like they used to build)
How many houses have basements in this area? Do they insist on them for new houses? I'd want a full-on bunker!


All that said, even the strongest blow over here is like a Sparrow fart compared to these big tornadoes, it's hard for me to comprehend just how strong they are.