Tornadoes are among nature’s most violent weather phenomena, capable of producing wind speeds that can level entire neighborhoods. While many people associate the destructive force of a tornado with residential homes, commercial structures, including multi-story hotels, are not immune to these extreme forces. When a powerful tornado strikes, these large buildings face a direct threat of catastrophic structural failure, turning lodging into a severe hazard. The vulnerability of any hotel depends on the tornado’s intensity and the building’s specific construction features. Assessing the true danger requires understanding the complex interplay between atmospheric power and structural resistance.
How Tornado Strength Dictates Damage
The intensity of a tornado is officially measured using the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale, which rates a storm from EF0 to EF5 based on the damage it causes. This scale links estimated three-second wind gusts to specific damage indicators across 28 different types of structures. Most tornadoes are relatively weak, with EF0 and EF1 storms typically causing only moderate damage like peeling off roof shingles and breaking windows. The wind speeds in these weaker storms are generally not enough to compromise the core structure of a modern, well-built hotel.
A significant threat to commercial buildings begins at the EF2 level, where wind gusts range from 111 to 135 miles per hour. These winds can tear the entire roof off a well-constructed house and are powerful enough to cause considerable damage to a hotel’s exterior, including the loss of extensive cladding and non-load-bearing walls. When a tornado reaches EF3 intensity, with gusts between 136 and 165 miles per hour, the potential for structural collapse becomes much higher. An EF3 storm is capable of destroying entire stories of well-built homes and causing severe damage to large buildings, including major failure of their primary load-bearing walls.
Only the most extreme tornadoes, EF4 and EF5, pose a threat of complete destruction to a modern, steel-reinforced hotel structure. An EF4 storm, with winds up to 200 miles per hour, can completely level well-constructed houses and often leaves large commercial buildings as little more than a frame of twisted steel. An EF5 tornado, with wind speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour, is capable of sweeping structures clean off their foundations. While rare, these powerful storms can cause total collapse of even large, engineered buildings.
Building Characteristics That Increase Vulnerability
A hotel’s ability to withstand extreme wind forces is largely determined by its structural design and the quality of its construction. Older hotels built before modern high-wind building codes were enacted often have significantly weaker roof-to-wall connections. This weakness allows the strong uplift forces created by a tornado to peel the roof off, which then exposes the interior walls to extreme internal pressure, often leading to rapid collapse. Newer buildings benefit from stronger shear walls and improved foundation anchoring, providing a more continuous load path to resist the forces.
Modern hotel designs often incorporate large, open-span spaces, such as expansive lobbies and ballrooms, which create a significant vulnerability. These areas rely on fewer interior support columns, making them susceptible to failure when exterior walls or the roof are breached. The common use of extensive glass facades, a feature in many contemporary hotels, also presents a substantial hazard. Its failure allows wind and water to enter the building, immediately pressurizing the interior and contributing to the catastrophic failure of the main structure.
The materials used are also a factor, as a steel-framed building provides a greater margin of safety than a wood-framed motel. However, even steel structures can fail if the connections between beams and columns are inadequate or if they are subjected to sustained EF4 or EF5 winds. Flat roofs, common in many commercial buildings, are particularly susceptible to the uplift forces of a tornado. The initial failure of the roof system often triggers a chain reaction of structural destabilization.
Essential Safety Actions for Hotel Guests
For guests, immediate action during a tornado warning is paramount, as the building’s structural integrity is already under threat. The safest location within any hotel is the lowest floor, ideally in a basement or a designated storm shelter, if one is available. If no basement exists, guests should proceed immediately to an interior room or hallway on the ground floor, putting as many walls as possible between themselves and the outside. Rooms with large, free-spanning roofs, such as hotel restaurants or ballrooms, must be avoided because they are the most likely to collapse first.
Guests should seek shelter in a small, windowless space like a closet or an interior bathroom, which is often reinforced by the plumbing and framing. In a bathroom, getting into the bathtub and covering oneself with a mattress or thick blanket provides a degree of overhead protection from falling debris. It is important to stay away from all exterior doors and windows, which are the most common points of failure and a source of dangerous flying glass and debris.
Never attempt to use an elevator during a tornado warning, as power failure is a common consequence that can lead to entrapment. Moving to the lowest level and the center of the structure should be done quickly and calmly, without delaying to collect non-essential personal items. The priority is to shield the body from wind, flying objects, and falling structural elements until the immediate threat has passed.