Maggie's Farm

[i]Call out the architects and engineers ![/b]

Let's make today the day: the day we hold architects and engineers responsible for the deaths of those children in Moore OK.
Don't pass the buck ever again! Hold these limp wristed cowards accountable for bad design!

Here's how it works. The agency in charge sets a budget for the new school building. Architects/engineers propose their designs. But, those designs are not done in accordance what is known to be the very best procedure--those designs are done "to code" and most often to "minimum" code. They do this so they can put in those design items which will make their drawings look best. Things like skylights an porticos, etc. you know "the pretties". They do that so their design will be chosen over the competition. HOWEVER, if minimum code does not require a basement with poured concrete walls of appropriate thickness there won't be a basement!
In areas where there are children and tornadoes I believe that anyone who designs/builds a school should be accountable to a higher standard of construction--to a standard that is known to be good sense -- 8" cinder block is not good sense. Texas Tech university has had a tornado research center for years. I am sure they could tell you what is best practice--not what is minimally required (that decision is a political agreement between the lobbyists for the construction industry and their unions and the local state representatives). It is the limp wristed architects/engineers who "KNOW BETTER" and "DO NOTHING" to make certain that children in tornado alley are safe in their schools. Please contact the AIA (AMerican Institute of Architects) and tell them that from now on they do not get to escape their responsibility. THey can no longer walk both sides of the street -- trying to serve their masters the contractors, and themselves (to hell with the client!) NO MORE! They are the key figures in this scenario! They must begin to show some courage and stand up to the pressures of the economic game at hand.

Dang it I must be getting old--can't type the correct symbols for make something BOLD !

JKB--yes, you are right we cannot protect every individual from every meterological possibility. However, in a public place built with government money for the purpose of educating children it might be sensible to realize that in some particular areas, tornado alley being one of them, the government should be required to demand their safety during an event which re-occurs on a yearly basis. You painted your last comment with too broad a stroke: you do not need to design a school that feels like a bunker all day every day. What can be done quite easily is to build a basement (use it for a gymnasium, or theatre, or whatever. If you want to demand accuracy from science and I for one do, then you must acknowledge there are systems and systems quite often can indicate what we can do to improve security.

Now, for the question of hurricanes -- coastal events-- stick built houses in areas that frequently experience hurricanes is of course not practical. If you want to move to FL and live in stick built that's fine by me--just be sure to pay the additional insurance costs, so I don't have to pay to rebuild your house every few years! With regard the damage done last year -- now is a grrreat time to push the housing zoning back away from those beaches. Leave more space for the public--Christie's got enough money to make sure these homes are rebuilt and the beaches maintained in such a way as to reduce the threat. Can be done--just have to want to ! Above all if you are a developer and you want to put in a housing development cheaply built then at least put an underground bunker under the cul de sac to house all those poor people who will be living in those houses if an emergency like this occurs. Build the cost into the price of the house--just think of what a selling point that will make!

Thank you, I appreciate your comments. Yes, JMA you are correct. The question is are "we the people" ready to have this discussion?
I believe the first step is to allocate additional insurance costs to some of these places, or better still, just permit the insurance industry to refuse to insure in certain areas. That ought to make folks think twice.

I know that the loss of beachfront is painful. But having beachfront is not necessary for a good quality of life in a beach town. You can build so that many have views, so that many more have access, and also you can build so that some have private beaches, but thinking through these issues necessitates that we are allowed to mention some politically unpopular ideas.
Both sides will loose something--but children will live and play and people will find shelter from these events. Not too bad a trade off would you say?

We have been hearing that the children who drowned were in the hallway on the main floor. The roof collapsed and pinned them down, then a water main broke and they drowned. They were not in a basement according to the reports we are getting here.

Here is a list of major tornadoes that have tore through this very same area. The city of Moore was damaged by significant tornadoes on October 4, 1998; May 3, 1999; May 8, 2003; May 10, 2010; and May 20, 2013. Moore is located in Tornado Alley, a colloquial term for the area of the United States where tornadoes are most frequent. About twenty tornadoes occurred within or in the immediate vicinity of Moore from 1890 to 2013.[5]

I have a proposal. What d'ya say they turn the whole town of Moore into a cattle ranch--a business in which each home owner who lived in Moore owns an equal share. They can then move some place west to an area with a better history.

Yes, you are right taking a look at what the insurance company actuarials say would be an indicator. However, in this PARTICULAR case, I think we need to consider seriously the fact that this one particular housing development has been re-built three times in the last 12 years! Enough is enough! Nobody says we should empty out the plains, though I do know some NYC investment groups that have done a thorough job of destroying the family farm and thus reducing the population of a vast area of the plains to pre settlement days!. I am saying that when a particular placement of ground gets hit over and over and over, we should acknowledge that rather than pretending "God will provide", etc. God does provide, however it is sometimes at a terrible price because of (wo)man's stupid, arrogant refusal to use critical thinking in order to "play the odds" game with human lives!