Standing Up to Severe Winds

In the early summer evening of 1970, Lubbock, Texas, a city (population 200,000) in the Texas Panhandle, was hit by an F-5 tornado, leading to 26 fatalities and US$1.52 billion (in 2013 dollars) of damage. One-third of the city was damaged (including eight elementary schools and two high schools), and the downtown area was devastated. This particular tornado remains listed in the top ten most costly tornadoes in the United States even when compared to the significant tornadic events of recent years. Researchers from Texas Tech University (TTU), the local university, realized that there was no one else in the academic world who was focused on how to make communities and their structures safer when hit by a severe wind event, and so the cornerstone for the National Wind Institute (NWI) was laid.