Reply #24: Open the windows [View All]

It sounds counter-intuitive but the negative pressure differential cause by a close tornado can cause a building to come apart.

When I lived in Oklahoma, the apartment complex I lived in was hit. I woke up with 6 inches of water in my apartment. I would have slept through it but my next-door neighbor, an insurance adjuster woke me up to ask if I would go with him to check the damage to some of his clients.
I remember one gas station that completely disappeared, leaving nothing but a concrete slab.

He later told me a story about one old-timer who, hearing that a Tornado was going to hit his neighborhood, grabbed a 2x4 and started smashing out his windows. His neighbors thought he was crazy, but after the storm passed, his was the only house standing on his block.