Looking on the news footage about yet another hurricane, I catch myself thinking that it is something basically wrong in that imagery.
If you compare f.e. Florida devastaion images and current footage from Ukraine or Donbass and you are an engineer, than you obviously find out that poor villages on Ukraine damaged diring battles looks better than much more expensive realty remnants in hurricane devastations in US.
And main thing - as engineer you will notice that overhelming majority of US houses destroyed by hurricane is really just a framing from wooden sticks covered by sheets of plywood or drywall, or by planks in the best case, and often don't even have a proper foundation, while on the other side of globe people build their houses from stone, concrete or logs and they withstand even direct hits of shells or missiles.
I don't understand that. If you live in area where hurricanes are not a rare thing, why would you build your house from sticks and plywood instead of building one that will just withstand the storm.
In Russia framed houses exists too, but it is usually a cheap vacation homes where people spend weekends. If one decide to live permanently in a rural area, the house from bricks, concrete or logs would be built, even if there is no any historical records of hurricanes or tornadoes in region.
So why build houses that are absolutely not designed for the hurricanes in area where hurricanes are regular thing, instead of just building concrete houses that will sustain hurricanes with minimum damage? Replacing few windows are much cheaper than rebuilding even cheapest possible framed house from the ground. And you hardly have a probability of injury or death if a hurricane catch you in normal building.
Even more - I know that in Montana, f.e., where hurricanes are not an issue, some people build houses from logs, that with high probability will withstand hurricane. And even on some footages from Florida I saw rare untouched concrete buildings among the totally destroyed realty.
So what I'm missing here? Why in areas that often hit by hurricanes people don't bother to build normal, reliable houses from proper materials and instead continue to build a boxes from sticks and plywood again and again with the same result after next hurricane?
I accept that explanation. Looks logical.
I have a spring floods here, when snow thaw, not heavy, but noticeable. I just made a monolite steel reinforced concrete basement, with addition of hydrophobic and sealing additives to concrete. No problems with leaks and no any mold at all. I got it flooded inside once when water pipe cracked. Was filled with water by one third. Just pumped out all water and dried it. That's all. No mold whatsoever. Basement is heated so no difference due to climate. Mold is not a rare thing outside. Stones and concrete things outside that are in shadows on the ground are covered by mold every summer, so mold spores are present everywhere.
So differences I see are salted water and may be different kind of mold. Interesting, how mold could destroy concrete in warm climate. "Black mold" that exists here could destroying concrete, making it more soaking, but you need water and freeze-unfreese cycles to really finish the job. Without freezing black mold itself can't significantly damage concrete. And it does not survive on concrete with sealing additives.
Meanwhile I can't say basement was much more expensive than regular ribbon concrete foundation. Basically it is the same thing, just with soil dugged out and a floor. IDK, may be ~30% more expensive, mostly because of more concrete and reinforcements that are relatively cheap.