Building bunker off grid homes by hand creates jobs while saving lives

An arch is three times or more stronger than a square. History has been to keep adding strength to walls, beams, pilings to try to cope with Mother Nature, most fail as witnessed recently from the aftermath of Hurricanes Michael and Dorian. The Cat 5 hurricane over downtown Miami for 24 hours you do not want to see the aftermath but this is reality. If your community does not have structures to withstand a tornado for 24 hours YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!

By creating a monolithic concrete foundation with steel bars coming out of that foundation to build a steel cage creates your home. Any design can be built using this method keeping in mind less wind resistance less water resistance better survival ability, 26 foot tidal surge today could be 30 feet 10 years from now or sooner?

Manual labor and material to mix concrete and if no steel additives now are available where a home can be built aerodynamically using concrete additives plus structural foam to create a wind Cat 5 survival home. The Romans invented waterproof concrete and changed history forever. The aqua duct still stands today using the arch design and waterproof concrete. Belief is that dirt was used to form many of the arches then concrete poured once set dirt was dug out and used again and again so on, pretty brilliant. Same technique can be done today using what is available in the immediate area to begin forming a form to withstand a thin coat of concrete over steel or lath anything. Keep building that layer up to 4 to 6 inches from ground to top to ground again making one continuous concrete form tied into a good foundation or footer ( footer is a drench running along side of a building without a concrete foundation). Using the footer method allows existing inferior homes to have a complete new concrete roof walls encapsulated inside a tornado proof covering.

Using a tidal surge of 30 feet, homes can be built to withstand not only a Cat 5 hurricane for days this design can also withstand tidal surges to 30 feet or more. Based on what has happened during Hurricanes Michael and Dorian all coastline construction should begin doing something different, I suggest thin shell monolithic bunker construction.

By increasing the arch design currently being used from 12 feet to 40 feet with the understanding the lower floors are meant to allow water flow and should be used as such. No roof to blow away is paramount for survival construction, impact windows mean nothing when your roof is gone.

Once the water subsides the home shell will stay be in place.

Using 21st century technology the Bahamian government has this opportunity take a disaster and create a rebuilding model the the world will admire using solar, wind and composting toilet systems saving millions, something Puerto Rico failed to do. New reality is, if your structure cannot take a Category 5 hurricane for days then you will not survive!

Currently the home being built at North Port, Florida will be entirely built by hand and concrete shell completed in 2 weeks, 24 ft wide 60 ft long.

Bahamas can rebuild using a proven technology faster and stronger. Fact that monolithic concrete structures have no air leak makes then easily off grid capable using solar / wind / backup battery systems for dramatically less than a conventional roof home. Spending millions on conventional reconstruction methods only to have them blow away a year or two afterwards should be thought about. Cost to replace poles, water, sewage systems as before should be analyzed, again something Puerto Rico did not do. For thousands of years cisterns were used to collect water and gravity fed to homes.

Composting toilets, each new dwelling on the Bahamian Islands, why not All? should require using composting toilets, let the government supply the composting material for fee! Alternative human feces disposal, elephant in the room nobody speaks about?

As a firefighter during Hurricane Andrew August 24, 1992 I saw the need for more safe rooms and stronger construction. From this event I have made it my life mission to prepare people for what is to come be it Mother Nature or man made. Even before this event I remember hiding under my desk for fear of a big bomb, has that time ended?

The two story photos used was a home built at Loxahatchee, Florida 1983. When the new owners tried to tear this home down. First they used a Cat excavator that is normally used with a large teeth bucket, the machine bounced off.

Next, a 5 ton wrecking ball was used, it bounced off.

The only method found to tear this monolithic concrete home down was to use carbide tip concrete cut saws! This is why this type of construction is called a bunker. This is the same technique used by Germany to build the bunkers along the Normandy Beaches and they withstood bombs.