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Severe Threat May 15-16, 2025

I mean that’s not unique to Kentucky, that’s just the south. It’s all older homes. Especially in Kentucky, There isn’t an incentive or market for new development because of population increases so all homes are older and probably are from the 70s-90s. There’s a lot of poverty too, which makes mobile homes more prevalent. I don’t think it’s in poor taste, the construction is generally poor. Which is why I’ve been trying to tell a few posters in here bent on this being a high end candidate that it’s just not going to happen
I know it’s the south in general, trust me, those “ef5” DIs from the Hackleburg tornado that showed empty CMU blocks not even attached to a concrete slab has never left my mind.

But Kentucky in particular definitely has one of the most poor construction standards in the country.

Not saying at all Hackleburg wasn’t an ef5 because it very much was.
 
I know it’s the south in general, trust me, those “ef5” DIs from the Hackleburg tornado that showed empty CMU blocks not even attached to a concrete slab has never left my mind.

But Kentucky in particular definitely has one of the most poor construction standards in the country.

Not saying at all Hackleburg wasn’t an ef5 because it very much was.
I think the only area in Kentucky that might have decent construction is the Louisville area.
 
Yes good eye. Lots of empty cells there, which means unreinforced CMU. While I am very confident this was a violent tornado, people should brace themselves for an EF3 rating.

Why is it so hard to find a single home with a proper poured slab and bolts foundation in Kentucky? It’s like Mayfield all over again.
I know man, as a Kentuckian, I can tell you, those are few and far between. The subdivisions aren’t going to have those because they mainly consist of older homes. In the rural counties, the larger homes are off to themselves so a violent tornado hitting those is like a needle in a haystack.

You would start seeing better construction closer to the bigger cities, where population growth has exploded and led to newer developments. So Lexington, Louisville, Covington (Cincy metro). Extremely nice homes in those areas.
 
Calling an entire group of damage surveyors and engineers idiots who spent much of their time studying, doing math, getting taught from experts (AKA the people who were from Fujita’s era of surveying) is pretty distasteful, especially when considering the fact that surveying is heavily dependent on the office doing it and differs vastly dependent on that factor alone. Regardless on whether or not you agree with their ratings, they have reasons for doing things the way they do. They are more qualified than many of us to assign tornado ratings based on the current scale. It’s inherently subjective and will continue to be for a long time.
I have studying tornado damage for 23 years but yet I don't know nothing according to you. There are people on this forum who are better than the experts at rating tornadoes.
 
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