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What would've been the worst tornado to take a direct hit in living in a solid brick house
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:09 pm
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:09 pm
Jarrell 1997
Joplin 2011
Smithville 2011
El Reno 2013

Joplin 2011

Smithville 2011

El Reno 2013

Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:12 pm to Chastains
Don’t remember exactly the details of it but was watching videos about tornadoes once and there was a F5 in the 1800s that apparently was traveling over 100mph and from the reports back then, it completely wiped a town out. Not a single building was still standing.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:16 pm to Fat and Happy
quote:
Don’t remember exactly the details of it but was watching videos about tornadoes
I watched one about some crazy powerful tornado that stripped the soil off the ground across a farm and created a ditch right through his crops.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:35 pm to Chastains
Are you talking "solid brick" as two or three bricks thick with good mortar or are you thinking brick veneer on wood frame or even steel frame or cinderblock in need of tuck pointing?
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:40 pm to Chastains
A brick house wouldn’t withstand any of them. There would be nothing left but a concrete slab. Joplin was an EF5 that killed 158 people. It narrowly missed an elementary school. School was out. The town of Joplin commissioned our company for an EF5 proof shelter. I designed that structure. It’s right next to the school now. It’s solid concrete with a frick-ton of rebar in it. 25’ deep anchors on the foundation. Each module weighs over 80,000lbs.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:44 pm to ManWithNoNsme
quote:
A brick house wouldn’t withstand any of them
The Jarrell tornado took the whole house to the slab, and scoured 6inches deep into the soil.
You are exactly correct.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:47 pm to Chastains
"Solid" brick wouldn't stop any of those. Jarrell for one just left bare foundations, and some of those houses were of decent construction. Brick is only a facade. Your only shot above ground is ICF or similar construction, and even then you'd want to be in some sort of safe room that is a concrete box inside the house's concrete box.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:47 pm to Chastains
quote:
What would've been the worst tornado to take a direct hit in living in a solid brick house

Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:47 pm to Chastains
I worked the 2011 Tornado outbreak. Generally, I document a claim with 20-60 photos. I had a brick house in Hackleburg, Alabama that only required 2 photos. One was of a huge pile a bricks and other debris. The other photo was of the label on a magazine cover showing the address. It was the only way to document that I was at the right location because the entire street was leveled.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:49 pm to Chastains
watched a show last night about strange weather happenings.
don't remember where it happened, but a few years ago an F4 leveled everything in an area except 1 house that didn't even lose any shingles.
as in even every tree surrounding the property (on all sides) were knocked over and flattened, but not the house.
don't remember where it happened, but a few years ago an F4 leveled everything in an area except 1 house that didn't even lose any shingles.
as in even every tree surrounding the property (on all sides) were knocked over and flattened, but not the house.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:51 pm to Chastains
Have a good friend that lives right outside of Lorena and followed the one that hit Jarrell for miles. It was brutal. Ripped the skin off cows
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:54 pm to SlapahoeTribe
quote:
I watched one about some crazy powerful tornado that stripped the soil off the ground across a farm and created a ditch right through his crops.
That was the Smithville tornado
Posted on 5/30/25 at 2:57 pm to SlapahoeTribe
I think that was Smithville. That one was a beast.
This post was edited on 5/30/25 at 3:00 pm
Posted on 5/30/25 at 3:05 pm to ManWithNoNsme
quote:
The town of Joplin commissioned our company for an EF5 proof shelter. I designed that structure. It’s right next to the school now. It’s solid concrete with a frick-ton of rebar in it. 25’ deep anchors on the foundation. Each module weighs over 80,000lbs.
Can you see this from google maps? Seems like it would easily identifiable.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 3:06 pm to ManWithNoNsme
Even a 3 will destroy a brick house. Maybe not down to bare slab, but pretty damn bad enough.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 3:07 pm to LSU82BILL
quote:
I worked the 2011 Tornado outbreak. Generally, I document a claim with 20-60 photos. I had a brick house in Hackleburg, Alabama that only required 2 photos. One was of a huge pile a bricks and other debris. The other photo was of the label on a magazine cover showing the address. It was the only way to document that I was at the right location because the entire street was leveled
I was standing about a half mile away when it came through Decatur. It was raining debris everywhere. Tree bark, roof shingles, clothes, anything you can think of. I caught a piece of mail & it was addressed 100 miles away in Mississippi.
This post was edited on 5/30/25 at 3:08 pm
Posted on 5/30/25 at 3:12 pm to Chastains
Forget a brick house. Would never live in a place with frequent tornadoes without a way to get underground.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 3:15 pm to Chastains
The DeKalb County, AL F5 on April 27, 2011. I know because I saw many, many brick homes absolutely erased by it. We had 36 deaths in our county from that one tornado, which was over 10% of the entire number of deaths that day from all the tornadoes.
Posted on 5/30/25 at 3:15 pm to Chastains
The Tri-State Tornado of 1925. Winds estimated in excess of 300 mph traveling at over 60 mph.
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