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Severe WX December 10 & 11, 2021 Severe Threat

MNTornadoGuy said:
I’m not sure if a house from the 1970s is going to be well-anchored.
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Well it doesn't matter if that particular house was well anchored or not because it wasn't a clean sweep anyway, but I am still wondering when exactly anchor bolts became common in home construction. I'm sure there are earlier examples, but the earliest one I can think of off the top of my head is the 1958 El Dorado, KS tornado.
 
I've seen anchor bolted homes in damage photos dating back to the 1950s. They've been around for a while, but I'm not sure when they became a more "standard" practice.
 
More lazily surveyed homes on the DAT.
1571154

1571157
 
Ok, that information is great, and it's nice to see a quite detailed assessment.

However, there is one point that really gets me there, and that is the house on Browning Road they mention (it was the one I was looking at west of Bowling Green). That was quite a large home per Streetview and if that house was well constructed, and had nothing left except an interior hallway/bathroom, why is that not at least mid-high end EF3 or even nudging towards EF4?
 
andyhb said:
Ok, that information is great, and it's nice to see a quite detailed assessment.

However, there is one point that really gets me there, and that is the house on Browning Road they mention (it was the one I was looking at west of Bowling Green). That was quite a large home per Streetview and if that house was well constructed, and had nothing left except an interior hallway/bathroom, why is that not at least mid-high end EF3 or even nudging towards EF4?
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Probably it had anchoring or construction problems.
 
MNTornadoGuy said:
1618304

This is a view of the house taken from DAT. I don’t see any anchor bolts on the foundation.
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The construction here seems to be non-typical. It appears to have had 2X6 exterior walls, and possibly a grout-leveled floor poured inside of that. Midway up on the right side of this pic you can see where wires or pipes come up through the sill plate as they normally would, and there seems to be regularly spaced dark-looking spots along those plates where bolts could be. Can't see enough to know if studs were end-nailed or toe-nailed. Also the brick/ block veneer is right next to what I think are the sill plates; again this would be expected.

5X zoom on a small old 1080p monitor don't show enough detail; would be glad if someone with a better PC looked at these points to clear up what I think I'm seeing. If I'm right then the only 'strength' lacking would be direct-path strapping or brackets between sill plates and wall corner studs which is almost never seen outside of areas with high seismic danger. 45 years of building experience here seems to indicate this was as well-built as homes get based only on what's left behind that I can see.

Phil
 
MNTornadoGuy said:
I mean farm equipment hitting it and foundation issues is a pretty reasonable reason to downgrade it. Maybe not to EF2 though.
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Sorry but I'm still not buying it. They never specified what "foundation construction concerns" there were and if the equipment was heavy enough to have a significant impact on the home's destruction, the equipment being thrown could be an indicator of violent winds itself.

Sure, it wasn't an EF5, but couldn't they have at least gone with a marginal EF4 rating?
 
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