Hurricane Houses for Haiti

FACT: Round Houses Stand Up to Hurricanes.

These little cylindrical dwellings would be cheap, I'd guess. And the bonus is that with no corners for the wind to grab, they might last a while and not get shred apart by the storms so common in the area. All you'd need is a section of concrete pipe. Beats the hell out of a tin shack covered in cardboard and plastic. How it holds up in an earthquake I couldn't tell you. Probably better than a tin shack covered in cardboard and plastic.

Background image is actually Haiti. Foreground dwellings created in Google Sketch-Up. Remember Google Sketch-Up? I finally learned how to make a dome from a YouTube tutorial.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Nothing to report off in the Atlantic right now. No destruction imminent. In the game of Hurricane Roulette, no one enjoys seeing another city suffer, but everyone who lives in the Hurricane Zone is glad when one skirts their locale.

After every hurricane, there's at least one report of a house that sustained no damage while bearing the worst of the storm. Invariably, these houses are domes. Makes perfect sense. The wind has no corner to grab, like a roof edge, gable or dormer. So why the hell aren't we building more dome houses in hurricane and tornado-prone areas? Insurance rates would drop for coastal dwellers and the federal bailout would be minimized. The house pictured, while a little grand, is one of those that weathered tough storms and came out relatively unscathed.


I'm sure this idea could be mass produced on the cheap, especially for poverty stricken and hurricane ravaged areas like Haiti, the DR and Cuba.