why do the americans build wooden houses in tornado, hurricane, prone states?

Answer 1

By your email address, I'm guessing you're from the UK. I'm an English ex-pat and have lived in the USA for many years now.

The USA isn't a nice "safe" place like the UK - the NE gets brutal Winters, the SE gets hurricanes, the SW gets earthquakes & wild fires the NW is about the only place to perhaps resemble the UK - grey & wet. I live in Arizona which has brutally hot Summers (up to 45-50C sometimes) - but it also has severe storms & flooding during monsoon season.

Point is, everywhere in the USA is prone to some sort of bad weather - but there's always an upside - I haven't seen snow in Phoenix in over 10 years (great news for the arthritis). I experienhce anout 2 or 3 frosty morning (25F for a low) per year.

As for why they use stick frame houses - because they can. It was common in the UK to build wooden houses, until wood started to get a bit scarce. It works out so much cheaper & in all but the most extreme cases, is just as structurally sound - and in the most extreme cases brick would probably fail too. I've seen UK house prices & that's the MAIN reason I will never go back to the UK.

Answer 2

If houses are built with bricks and metal, the disaster will be greater as more lives will be killed by these heavy building materials. Woods , on the other hand, are lighter and less damages caused.

Answer 3

for the simple reason, that when damage occurs, no harm is caused for the inmates of the building and wooden structures are cheap and easily repairable.

Answer 4

why do pakistanis build stone houses in earthquake prone areas?

Answer 5

They can't afford to build anything else.

Answer 6

Why don't people in starving nations move where the food is?

Answer 7

Because not all Americans are millionaires, they can only afford wood, or trailors for that matter.

Answer 8

it's way too expensive to make them out of anything else

Answer 9

well if they made it of anything else they would have nothing to float on