Nature's Fury

The mission of a "Tornado Wall" is to minimize the destruction of lives and property due to tornados by using tremendous walls that are designed to prevent the circulatory ground winds from forming and therefore minimize the chance of a tornado “vortex” from forming.

Up to now the only recourse the government had was just to give people enough adequate warning that a tornado is coming so that they may find a safe refuge from the storm’s fury. No thought at all has been given to trying to prevent the destruction of property - thinking that tornados are just too powerful for mankind to stop or control. With the coming of the “Tornado Walls” I predict this thinking will now change.
These walls will give people in vulnerable areas some hope of avoiding total destruction of their lives property from these destructive storms. Great seawalls have been constructed to protect ocean coastal areas and hundreds of miles of levees along rivers to protect from flooding so why not construct tornado walls to protect people and property in highly vulnerable locations.

Basically a tornado is nothing more then the vortex of strong circulatory winds created by the strong updraft of a thunder storm. They are on a much smaller scale then a hurricane or typhoon, but they are a bundle of concentrated power capable of doing a lot of damage in a fairly localized area. Conditions have to be ‘just right’ for a tornado to form.

Strong updrafts of a powerful thunder storm cause the ground winds to increase, unhampered by obstructions, over flat land allows the ground wind to begin to circulate and finally form the vortex (tornado). In order to prevent these circulatory winds and vortex from forming - wind baffles (walls) can now be constructed along the most likely paths of potential tornados in strategic populated areas. Since the paths and most likely locations of tornados are somewhat predictable tornado walls can be strategically placed for most effective use.

Booster tanks on fire engines had the same problem until they put baffles in the tank to prevent the circulatory motion of the water forming a whirlpool within the tank when the pumps were engaged causing rapid explusion of water from the tank. The tornado walls and the booster tank baffles work on the same principle - that is - to prevent the circulatory winds or circulating water from forming a vortex.

Tornado Walls - are simply giant baffles - designed to prevent the circulatory winds and therefore the vortex (the tornado) of these circulatory winds from forming around towns, cities and other populated areas. The Tornado Wall does not have be strong enough to withstand the full force of a tornado since - if it does its job - the tornado will not form in the first place. It only has to be strong enough to withstand the outlying circulatory winds. The dimensions of these walls would be approximately 200 feet high and 1 or 2 miles long. (or even much longer).

If a tornado is headed toward a populated area protected by a tornado wall - the wall will break up the wind circulation preventing the vortex from becoming organized as it approaches the town thereby stifling the tornado on the ground in the area that it is protecting - although circulatory winds may still be active above the wall where they are unhampered by the wall. The tornado may very well touch ground level again - after it is well pass the influence of the wall but the damage to the town will have been prevented.

Just as levees have protected populated areas from floods for hundreds of years - tornado walls will now protect populated areas from the destructive tornados. There are about 800 tornados of all sizes spawned in the the central area of the country every year causing significant loss of life and billions of dollars worth of property destruction. If the presence of tornado walls can prevent some of this destruction and give the citizens of these areas greater peace of mind the “walls” will be well worth the cost.

Donald L. Hamilton © 2002

Donald L. Hamilton, is the author of "The Mind of Mankind: Human Imagination, the source of Mankind's tremendous power."

Email

Click on Cover