Dome Shape Survives Direct Tornado Hit – On May 24, 2011 in Blanchard, OK, this house, a dome shaped home, was hit by an EF4 or EF5 tornado.
A Testament to the Dome Shape
Freda Parker • Published on Jul 5, 2011 • Monolithic Dome Benefits: Survivability
An article published on Monolithic.org
Although badly damaged by heavy, flying debris, the dome shell survived. That, we think, is a testament to the dome shape. Conventional homes hit by this tornado were flattened and swept off their foundations. (Josh South)
A horrific tornado
At about 5:38 pm on a hot, humid afternoon, an EF4 tornado – possibly an EF5 – with winds of about 200 mph hit little Blanchard, Oklahoma and its 3225 residents. Fortunately, unlike some of its neighbors hit by the same spate of tornadoes, Blanchard suffered no fatalities. But some people were hurt seriously and had to be hospitalized; vehicles were overturned and flung about; giant trees and shrubs were twisted and uprooted; heavy debris was blown hither and tither; and 200 homes were either destroyed or damaged.
Dome takes direct hit
One of those homes – a thin shell concrete dome – constructed in 1981 by an independent builder took a direct hit.
When the tornado alert sounded, the owners, Jane and George Cox, both in their 80s, were in their dome home, feeling perfectly safe. According to Debbie Leonard, their daughter, they felt so safe they remained near the windows hoping to watch the tornado.
Debbie said, "My parents were inside and they were injured because they didn’t take cover. I was taking it (the tornado alert) very seriously. They kept saying, ‘These houses are tornado-proof.’ And I kept telling them the windows were not tornado-proof.
“If they had been in their closet, they would not have been injured,” Debbie added. “But they kept looking out the windows. When they saw it coming, they started toward the back of the house, and that’s when it hit. They were knocked down and bombarded with all sorts of stuff. They’re lucky to be alive.”
The debris that came flying through the window included a 300-gallon diesel tank and a full roll of barbed wire fencing, and the dome was hit by cars and all kinds of heavy debris.
Debbie said, “My parents had to go to the hospital and get stitches. Mom’s ankle and foot were seriously hurt but should heal without surgery. It was bad. I mean, they wouldn’t be alive if they had been in a regular house.”
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