8 Ways to Protect Your Home Against Tornadoes and Hurricanes

This story initially appeared in June 2011. We're reposting in response to the devastating tornadoes that struck Moore, Okla., yesterday. These kinds of building techniques may not have saved all those caught in the path of the monster Moore tornado, but hundreds of twisters hit the United States every year, and smart building strategies and tech can reduce the damage from the great many of those.

This year has blown away the annual average for deadly tornadoes in the U.S. (28) with a barrage that numbers 50 and counting. This April was the worst tornado month on record, and storms throughout the year have ripped through Alabama, Massachusetts, Missouri and elsewhere. And now, as tornado season winds down, the late-summer hurricane season is about to begin.

Ernst Kiesling, professor of civil engineering at Texas Tech University, says there's not much you could do if a tornado scoring a 5 on the EF (enhanced Fujita) scale bears down on your home (and in the case of tornadoes, with their smaller path of destruction, many people would rather gamble with fate than invest in armoring their homes with costly technologies). But if you want to try to brace your home against the howling winds of twisters or hurricanes, there is a spectrum of technologies available, from roof clips and window shutters at the more inexpensive end to reinforcements for doors and walls at the high end. And if you do nothing to safeguard your home, Kiesling says, at the very least, protect your family with an in-home safe room or underground shelter.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/interior/8-ways-to-protect-your-home-against-tornadoes-and-hurricanes?src=rss

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