The nature of wind storms and windinduced damage - Wind Loading of Structures - page 15

1.4 Wind damage
Damage to buildings and other structures by wind storms has been a fact of life for
human beings from the time they moved out of cave dwellings to the present day. Trial
and error has played an important part in the development of construction techniques and
roof shapes for small residential buildings, which have usually suffered the most damage
during severe winds. In the past centuries, heavy masonry construction, as used for
important community buildings such as churches and temples, was seen, by intuition, as
the solution to resist wind forces (although somewhat less effective against seismic
action). For other types of construction, wind storm damage was generally seen as an
'Act of God', as it is still viewed today by many insurance companies.
The nineteenth century was important as it saw the introduction of steel and reinforced
concrete as construction materials and the beginnings of stress analysis methods for the
design of structures. The latter was developed further in the twentieth century, especially
Figure 1.9 Anemograph for a severe
downburst at Andrews Air Force Base,
Maryland, 1983 (source: Fujita, 1985).