Path Of Destruction 17 Miles Long
BLITZER: The tornado carved a path of destruction 17 miles long. CNN's Tom Foreman is joining us now with a closer look at that devastating route. Show to our -- show our viewers what happened, Tom.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, investigators are looking at this entire path of this storm, all 17 miles, to see exactly how strong it was each step of the way, particularly when it came cutting through that main swath there. Because that gives them very important clues as to how design buildings, how to design neighborhoods and try to prevent such damage in the future. Part of the way they do is look at specific targets, like a house, that schools, the hospital which we put in the walls so you could see the damage. What are they looking for? Specific keys. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, for example, has looked at a typical house and said a normal house when hit by this type of wind will start coming apart at about 97 miles an hour. That's been the roof. It will be pried off like a can opener from all the wind. Hundred and thirty-two miles an hour, the walls start coming down, 200 miles an hour it's all gone. So any place they see a house completely gone, if there's not a construction flaw, they're going to say, that probably meant 200 miles an hour or more. It's different when you come over to something like the school over here. It's a different type of construction. Here you're going to start losing a roof at about 101 miles an hour, the walls at 139 and all of it will be gone at about 176. It's actually a weaker building than the homes because it's much bigger, broader rooms within it. And then when you move to something like a hospital, it's a whole different game because there's a lot of concrete, a lot of steel. This is a much more robust structure. Here you're going to be talking about some much more impressive numbers like 114 miles an hour for the roof to go, 148 for the walls to start failing, 210 for it all to go. Although that would be pushing up to 250 or 260. This is the kind of building that doesn't give up much. The bottom line is, Wolf, they're going to look at the damage all along the route, and block by block figure out how strong this storm was so they can get a better assessment and again have better planning in the future. It's like following a criminal by looking at the scene of the crime to figure out just exactly what he did -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: They've got to learn lessons from this horrible, horrible tornado. Tom Foreman, thanks very much.