Tri-Tech Unit Tie-Downs Withstand Dayton Tornadoes

The sunrise following the Memorial Day tornado outbreak revealed unprecedented damage to thousands of homes and businesses throughout the Miami Valley. Morning news and social media photos and video unveiled the magnitude of damage dispensed by the more-than-ten tornadoes that ripped through Old North Dayton, Trotwood, Riverside, and Beavercreek. Very few structures, big and small, in the path of these tornadoes went through the night without damage.

The blue circles designate structures that encountered severe damage. The read arrow points to the units Tri-Tech designed.

In Beavercreek, Ohio, an economic hub for the Dayton area, an EF2 unleashed wind gusts upwards of 135 mph. Businesses’ owners discovered their properties with collapsed roofs, blown-out windows, caved-in walls, and missing fixtures, such as awnings, lighting, and HVAC units. In the midst of the devastation, as seen in the picture from a news camera, a local business found its rooftop units relatively undisturbed. Despite the sheer force of the EF2, these units remained fastened to the roof as a result of Tri-Tech’s design.

Sought out by the building’s contractor a few years earlier, Tri-Tech provided ventilation calculations and tie-down calculations as well as other details. Building code then was based on a 90-mph design load with a code update that included an up-lift component. And as a result of Tri-Tech’s tie-down calculations and design, the units remained where they were installed and secured, unmoved the morning after Memorial Day 2019 in Dayton, Ohio.