Resiliency measures for hurricanes can help with tornadoes

Architect Butch Grimes, who examined the wreckage after a half-mile tornado struck Tuscaloosa, Ala., believes toughening building codes can reduce damage from twisters.

“The damage we had on the edges [of the tornado] could have been avoided with simple construction techniques,” Grimes told Scientific American.

The strongest hurricane winds on the coast can reach 180 mph, while the strongest tornadoes, category EF-5, have wind speeds of 200 to 250 mph. Tornadoes that strong are rare, with more common lower-category EF-2 or EF-3 tornadoes having wind speeds in the 100- to 150-mph range. The lower wind speeds, around hurricane strength, are most common on the edge of tornadoes.

“It’s probably not practical to design for EF-5 damage,” Grimes said. Weaker storms, however, can and should be designed for as coastal areas have been doing for years, he said.

Hurricane clips are one potential quick fix. In Alabama, the clips are required for buildings built within 5 miles of the Gulf of Mexico but remain optional farther inland. Reinforced windows could be another effective measure.

(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tornado-survival-could-improve-with-better-building-codes/)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.