This document discusses the benefits of building homes out of reinforced concrete to increase resistance to hurricanes and tornadoes. It provides several examples where concrete homes withstood storms while nearby wood homes were destroyed. Researchers found concrete walls can withstand flying debris better than other materials. Specifically, monolithic dome homes and those made with insulating concrete forms performed well. The technology for building reinforced concrete homes to resist storms was originally developed over 50 years ago on Guam to withstand typhoons. The document encourages learning more about building hurricane resistant concrete homes.

1. Storm Ahead
Building Hurricane Resistant Homes

2. Dangers during the storm

3. When Storm Ahead, the greatest danger to people and property is
flying debris.
Carried at such intense velocity, a 2 x 4 piece of lumber will
become a missile that can slice through walls.
Researchers for the Wind Engineering Research Center at Texas
Tech University say that concrete walls are strong enough to
withstand flying debris from hurricanes and tornadoes.
According to their findings, homes made of concrete are much
more storm-resistant than houses constructed of wood and steel.

4. Concrete homes against the Storm

5. Reinforced concrete homes have proven their wind-resistance in
the field during tornadoes and hurricanes.
In Urbana, Illinois, a recently constructed insulating concrete form
home withstood a 1996 tornado with minimal damage.
In the Liberty City area of Miami, several concrete form homes
survived Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
In both cases, neighboring homes were destroyed.

6. Monolithic Domes, which are made of concrete and rebar, have
proved especially strong.
The sturdy concrete construction combined with the dome shape
make these innovative homes nearly impervious to tornadoes,
hurricanes, and earthquakes.

7. Preliminary studies have found that poured concrete homes resist
wind loads better than concrete block homes, with the additional
benefits that poured concrete homes are faster to construct,
require less onerous inspections, and provide a more easily
installed, uninterrupted, thermal barrier of insulation.

8. Technology
for Hurricane-Resistant Homes

9. The technology for designing and building tornado-resistant
houses has been around since 1963 — almost half a century.
*It was first developed in America, not in continental North America, but instead in
the American protectorate territory of the Marianas islands, primarily on the island of
Guam.

10. It utilizes the principle of "box-rigid-frame," a type of reinforced
concrete shell design.
The original houses used precast concrete walls which were
fabricated at the building sites and tilted into position.
The roofs utilized cast-in-place reinforced concrete.
All of the elements of a house, floors, walls and roofs, were
intimately connected with steel reinforcing bars in order to create a
box, or shell.

11. Instead of building storm shelters inside a house as is usually
done in North America, the entire house becomes a storm shelter,
a practice that was not used until the Guam typhoon-resistant
reinforced concrete shell house concept was developed.

12. So,
want to build your home with concrete?

13. Discover the possibilities...
visit us today
www.DRMprefab.com