Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St Louis

Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by stohk on Saturday December 11, 2021 @08:19PM (#29526122)

This type of warehouse building is extremely pervasive right now. Having worked in an amazon facility and several other 'modern' warehouses, they all share the same design. It's prefabbed concrete sections held in place by steel support columns. Steel truss structure holding roof with steel I-beams providing support to roof. Any modern warehouse struck by the same inclement weather will suffer the same exact fate.

Will add that the weather affecting this particular facility was extreme by any measure but most facilities that occupy the tornado alley should seriously consider this. My facility had a shelter in place policy in case of inclement weather which basically means, everyone(800-1k people?) huddle into 4, 6 person bathrooms.

Amazon Leased the building I worked in, so kind of removes them from blame of structural failure, but maybe not he decision to occupy the building during known severe weather.

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Re:Six dead after tornadoes destroy Amazon warehouse near St... by rootusrootus on Saturday December 11, 2021 @09:11PM (#29526466)

I can't even imagine what it would take to design a warehouse-size building to withstand 200-300 mph winds. Not just expensive, but the engineering required would be pretty significant.

By comparison, I think it is probably fairly straightforward to make office buildings that can stay reasonably intact even with a direct hit. Much more structure to work with.

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