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Building Damage in South Carolina Caused by the Tornadoes of March 28, 1984 (1985)

Chapter: SINGLE-FAMILY DOMESTIC DWELLINGS AND MOBILE HOMES

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Suggested Citation:"SINGLE-FAMILY DOMESTIC DWELLINGS AND MOBILE HOMES." National Research Council. 1985. Building Damage in South Carolina Caused by the Tornadoes of March 28, 1984. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/19291.
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Suggested Citation:"SINGLE-FAMILY DOMESTIC DWELLINGS AND MOBILE HOMES." National Research Council. 1985. Building Damage in South Carolina Caused by the Tornadoes of March 28, 1984. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/19291.
×
Page 5
Suggested Citation:"SINGLE-FAMILY DOMESTIC DWELLINGS AND MOBILE HOMES." National Research Council. 1985. Building Damage in South Carolina Caused by the Tornadoes of March 28, 1984. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/19291.
×
Page 6
Suggested Citation:"SINGLE-FAMILY DOMESTIC DWELLINGS AND MOBILE HOMES." National Research Council. 1985. Building Damage in South Carolina Caused by the Tornadoes of March 28, 1984. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/19291.
×
Page 7
Suggested Citation:"SINGLE-FAMILY DOMESTIC DWELLINGS AND MOBILE HOMES." National Research Council. 1985. Building Damage in South Carolina Caused by the Tornadoes of March 28, 1984. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/19291.
×
Page 8
Suggested Citation:"SINGLE-FAMILY DOMESTIC DWELLINGS AND MOBILE HOMES." National Research Council. 1985. Building Damage in South Carolina Caused by the Tornadoes of March 28, 1984. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/19291.
×
Page 9

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2 SINGLE-FAMILY DOMESTIC DWELLINGS AND MOBILE HOMES The areas struck by the South Carolina tornadoes contain a variety of domestic housing, but the residents of many of the areas are relatively poor. The average per capita income in South Carolina as a whole is $8,039. In Marlboro County it is only $5,485. Thus, although the areas affected contain luxury homes, and some of these were damaged by tor- nadoes, much of the housing stock is that of low-income families, and mobile homes form a significant portion of that. There are essentially two forms of conventional construction in South Carolina, wood-framed and load-bearing concrete block. The wood-framed houses are clad with wood siding or brick veneer. Basements exist in some dwellings in Newberry and Winnsboro but are rare in the Bennettsville area. Since all three towns are at least 80 miles from the sea, building codes contain no special requirements for roof clips or straps that might exist in a hurricane-prone coastal area. Masonry construction does not normally contain vertical reinforcement. Examples were found of both masonry and framed construction in which the buildings had been completely destroyed, reduced either to a pile of rubble or widely scattered pieces of wood (Figures 2, 3, and 4). In better constructed single-story buildings of frame construction, the damage was often restricted to the loss of roofs, windows, and portions of exterior walls (Figure 5). Internal corridors often remained sufficiently intact to provide shelter for the occupants (Figure 6). In other instances, basements provided a safe refuge even though the house above was completely destroyed. In Winnsboro, one fatality occurred when an unreinforced masonry wall of a house collapsed on an occupant. The shelter of a bed was sufficient to ensure the sur- vival of others in the building. Because the effect of tornadoes is very localized, it is difficult to compare forms of construction or different locations. However, the most severe damage—the complete removal of houses—took place on iso- lated open hilltops in the Winnsboro area, where the tornado appears to have jumped from hill to hill. In the Bennettsville area, where the terrain is flat, the presence of a heavily wooded area around the houses appeared to have reduced the damage, although the area struck was of relatively expensive homes. As expected from aerodynamic considerations, steep-pitched roofs appeared to have performed better than shallow-pitched roofs.

In many instances, roofs failed either intact or in large sections, the toe-nailed connections having been inadequate in the case of frame construction and the anchors, if provided, not holding in the case of masonry construction. As has been observed many times before, mobile homes performed extremely poorly (Figures 7 and 8). Nearly 40 percent of all the deaths in the storm occurred in mobile homes. Most of the mobile homes damaged were not fitted with tie down straps. In some instances they were com- pletely destroyed while adjacent buildings of conventional construction, albeit rather poor, were virtually undamaged. An isolated tornado touched down in Anderson County near the Georgia border and completely destroyed a mobile home that had been well tied down. In some places the ground anchors pulled out, but in other places the tie-down straps failed (Figures 9 and l0). FIGURE 2 Modern frame house in Winnsboro.

FIGURE 3 Older frame house in Winnsboro. FIGURE 4 Masonry house in Winnsboro.

FIGURE 5 Modern frame house with brick siding in Winnsboro. FIGURE 6 Detail of in- terior corridor.

FIGURE 7 Mobile home in Winnsboro. FIGURE 8 Mobile home in Winnsboro.

FIGURE 9 Mobile home in Anderson County. FIGURE l0 Failed tie-down strap.

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