Building Damage

10/2/2020 (Permalink)

Building Damage

 Extreme winds can cause several kinds of damage to a building.

To understand what happens when extreme winds strike, you must first understand that tornado and hurricane winds are not constant. Wind speeds, even in these extreme wind events, rapidly increase and decrease. An obstruction, such as a house, in the path of the wind causes the wind to change direction. This change in wind direction increases pressure on parts of the house. The combination of increased pressures and fluctuating wind speeds creates stress on the house that frequently causes connections between building components to fail. For example, the roof or siding can be pulled off or the windows can be pushed in. Buildings that fail under the effects of extreme winds often appear to have exploded, giving rise to the misconception that the damage is caused by unequal wind pressures inside and outside the building. This misconception has led to the myth that during an extreme wind event, the windows and doors in a building should be opened to equalize the pressure. In fact, opening a window or door allows wind to enter a building and increases the risk of building failure.

https://www.fema.gov/pdf/library/ism2.pdf

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