There have been countless blogs and YouTube analysis videos posted about the 2013 Moore tornado that left 24 people dead, 377 injured, and caused $2 billion in damages to the small Oklahoma city. I’ll spare the scientific details of the tornado’s ever changing size, speed, and strength (but you can see a full analysis here). This tornado ravaged the town of Moore, Oklahoma, a hot spot for tornadic activity. The area has since seen several more rounds of devastation, but this storm in particular became especially significant for one specific circumstance: shoddy construction of ticky tacky houses.

Around 2013, Moore had become a growing metropolis meaning that more and more residents were flocking to this beautiful midwestern area. With an influx of new residents, comes new construction and the winner of those construction contracts would be the lowest bidder for the job. This situation in and of itself created an issue: how to keep up with the demand for new homes while staying within budget and time constraints. The result? Quickly built plywood homes.

Though this style of construction may have gone unnoticed in an area such as Tennessee, where natural disasters are uncommon, this would be the kiss of death for many in Moore and lead to total devastation for the town. As this monster of a cyclone ripped through residential areas, entire homes were swept clean of their foundations creating virtually unsurvivable conditions for the residents of the home. Though the EF rating for the tornado was only at an EF-4 as it passed over Moore, the storm was originally given an EF-5 rating due to the amount of damage inflicted to these poorly constructed homes.

Upon further inspection, it was found that the anchor bolts that keep the 4×6 housing timbers securely attached to their concrete foundations were missing the vital nuts and washers that would likely have prevented the total destruction of a majority of the homes in the area. In another subdivision, it was found that the timbers that framed the homes were nailed, rather than bolted, to the foundations. This subdivision accounted for a majority of the fatalities experienced by this tornado.

As a result, residential building codes in Oklahoma were updated to surpass the national standards set by the National Association of Home Builders. New home construction is now required to include framing anchors, continuous plywood bracing and wind-resistant garage doors, among other changes. There was also an ordinance proposed that would required storm shelters or safe rooms be built into new housing projects.