But while all big-box stores are vulnerable to high winds, the Joplin Home Depot — even though it met local building codes — was especially at risk, according to engineers who study the destruction that tornadoes leave behind.
The Joplin Home Depot and many of the company’s other stores used a popular construction method called “tilt-up wall” that The Kansas City Star found can be deadly under certain conditions.
It’s a design used in thousands of warehouses, stores and schools across the country that some engineers believe has weak links that often fail — even in winds much less ferocious than those that hit Joplin on May 22.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
KC Star: Experts challenge building design, codes after Joplin Tornado
A major investigative piece in today's Kansas City Star looks into the city of Joplin's building codes and design in the aftermath of the May 22 tornado:
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The Hospital, like the Hospital in Branson is actually built out of paper mache. They have a steel inner structure, partition walls made of very thin steel studs and the exterior is covered with styrofoam panels and covered with a lite plaster like material.
It would be possible to kick your way out thru an exterior wall if need be.
Until such time as we go back to solid brick and mortar structures, they will fall like a toothpick house.
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