Tornadoes are so powerful they do damage to almost everything in their path — but past storms have taught government officials and contractors some valuable lessons about building codes and given them blueprints for dealing with the killer winds.

THE FEDERAL Emergency Management Agency is learning lessons from devastation. After one of the worst tornado outbreaks in recent years — 49 people killed and 4,000 homes destroyed in Oklahoma last May — FEMA sent engineers to measure, photograph and chart structural weaknesses that made death and destruction worse.
 
Now, nearly a year later, the team’s report is in. It finds that homes can be built almost tornado proof and built to withstand any wind from twisters that are scale one, two, or three — and all but the very most intense winds at the center of the most violent, scale four or five tornadoes.

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