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Ian Sinks Florida ‘Dome Home’ Built to Survive Hurricanes
- bell-cot 4y agoThe retraction is right in the article's sub-title: "...was designed to withstand gale-force winds and powerful storm surges..." Even the most generous interpretation of "gale-force" wind tops out at 63 MPH ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale#Modern_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale#Modern_scale ). Ian was a hurricane (defined as 73+ MPH, Ian hit 155+ MPH). The wind's destructive power goes up as the square of velocity (or worse). Then there are storm surges plus waves, and the article's 2nd paragraph notes that it was built on a sand spit, which was on an island which Ian completely submerged. So...yeah. This is "news", about the same way that "Army's newest tank-killer weapon can punch right through a pistol-bullet-resistant vest" would be news.
- quantified 4y agoI don't understand that reading of it. > Its spherical walls were built to deflect 150-mph winds that would level most conventionally designed homes. Unless they got the numbers wrong, the writer is simply being imprecise, probably treating "gale" and "hurricane" as synonyms. Good thing they didn't use "zephyr" too. Meanwhile, the real point of it is not that the homes' engineering failed, but rather that withstanding 150-mph isn't enough. Now you need to build for at least 200.
- bell-cot 4y ago(My charitable reading was that those good-to-150MPH walls were build atop foundations which were only good enough to withstand gale-level storm surges & waves. In Tornado Alley, Oklahoma...that'd be pretty good. On the coast in southern Florida...no crystal ball needed to foresee how it would fail.)