Stronger Homes Being Built In Moore

There's been a lot of rebuilding in Moore in the past year. But many of those homes are now being built to one of the toughest building codes in the nation. The City of Moore put the new codes into place April 17.

Sue Oldham is rebuilding on the exact same lot where the tornado destroyed her home a year ago. She's lived there for almost 40 years, and this is the second time she's been hit. Even though she purchased her building permit before the new codes took effect, she decided to have her home built according to them anyway.

"I just really would like for it to be as safe as they can make them," said Sue.

The city has issued 29 building permits since the new codes went into effect on April 17. They mandate, among other things, OSB board on all the exterior walls, a special reinforced garage door, special nailing patterns and thousands of hurricane clips to secure the roof on the home.

"The main theme of this is connectivity, your connecting everything together to make it one solid piece so that it doesn't come apart," said Marvin Haworth, of Haworth homes, who building several homes in Moore under the new code. "In this previous event we lost in the City of Moore, it was estimated 1,200 homes. We would have lost a lot less, probably cut that in half had all the homes been built to this standard."

He says the reinforcements probably won't save your house in an F5 but should keep is together through an F3 or smaller. And that, says Sue, is worth the extra cost.

"It was right at $5000 which to me is pretty insignificant for the peace of mind," she said.

Not everyone is like Sue, the assistant City Manager says the city sold 37 permits in the week before the new codes went into effect.