Study Says Joplin Homes Poorly Built for Wind

A new engineering report says Joplin, Mo., homes destroyed in the 2011 tornado were poorly built to withstand wind.

The American Society of Civil Engineers study also shows that most of the damage caused by the Joplin tornado that killed 161 people and leveled a wide swath of the southwest Missouri city was caused by wind speeds of 135 mph or less, which is equal to an EF-2 tornado.

The Joplin Globe reports the ASCE team concluded that because the structures were poorly built to withstand wind, flying debris from houses made damage worse.

The report says if the houses in the tornado zone had been built with hurricane ties, which fasten the rafters and trusses to exterior walls of a house, the damage would have been reduced.