A cyclone tends to lift everything off a building so you’ve got to tie it down. And you also have to design a building so that if walls and windows get blown out internal walls don’t get blown out as well.

We aren’t a high cyclone risk area but then again we sometimes do get direct hits from cyclones although rarely.

How to build a house that will weather a category 5 cyclone:
[ul]Design for pitched roofs rather than flat
Use windows tested to withstand 320km/h winds and glass made with protective membranes and plastic panes
Consider ‘earth sheltering’ using earth against external wall to increase mass
Construct house from wood and/or reinforced concrete with horizontal and vertical steel bracing
Install aluminium shutters on windows and doors
Fix roofs at close intervals of about 600mm
Fix walls securely to the footings or slab and/or use temporary cyclone harness strappings to tie a house or mobile home to its foundations
Elevate beachfront houses vulnerable to storm surge on wooden steel or concrete pilings and/or anchor them to solid rock
Toenail roof trusses (triangular brackets of brick or stone) into the tops of walls
Design external doors to open outward
In storm surge areas construct ground and/or first-floor walls from Sheetrock or drywall which can deteriorate when wet allowing water under force to pass through thus reducing lateral pressur on the house allowing the framework to survive and be reclad.[/ul]