Dive Brief:

• A year after the nation saw the devastation that an EF5 tornado visited on Moore, Oklahoma, the town has moved to defend itself with new building code provisions specifically designed to help structures resist strong winds.
• Among the new requirements, which made Moore the first city in the U.S. to directly address wind-damage resistance, are continuous wood structural panel sheathing on all exterior walls and plywood or OSB on gable end walls.
• Moore knows all too well the the damage storms can wreak, with the May 20, 2013 tornado the third powerful storm to hammer the city in 15 years.

Dive Insight:

The town council was advised by Chris Ramseyer, a professor at the University of Oklahoma and an advocate of building with wind resistance in mind. He estimated that the provisions Moore adopted may add $1 per square foot to construction costs. They are similar to optional provisions that Georgia put in its code while estimating that they would add $600 to the cost of a typical house.