When a line of strong thunderstorms hit North Texas early Wednesday, Michael Hampton, of Rockwall, rushed to make sure his family was safe.
"I started hearing it. I said, 'Here it comes,'" he said. "So I made a beeline upstairs. Get the kids. Make sure they were good."
They were. But his house wasn't.
An entire brick wall was ripped off, and some of his neighbors' houses were damaged even more.
Now, some people are asking: should straight-line winds really be able to do such damage?
"If a house is built to code, and that is the 90 mile-an-hour wind, there should be little if any damage to a house," said Tim Marshall, a Flower Mound civil engineer and meteorologist.
In Rockwall, winds were clocked at 95 miles per hour.
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But Marshall said the code itself is weak and compared it to getting a passing grade in school.
"Is that our goal, the night before a test, to study for a 70, and if we make a 70, we go, 'Yeah, we made it?'" he said. "No, I think we should shoot above the code. The minimum code is minimum. We should go and tie things together much better."
Rockwall's building official, Jeffrey Widmer, said the destruction was an act of God – not the result of shoddy construction or problems with inspections.
"I think Mother Nature definitely took a toll on some homes, that's for sure," Widmer said.
Rockwall issues permits on every new home and performs multiple inspections throughout the process, he said, adding the city abides by the commonly accepted International Building Code.
But Marshall said inspectors don't see everything.
"They cannot be out there to make sure every nail goes in every board properly, and things are tied in together," he said.
Hampton said he bought his house new seven years ago and hasn't had any problems – until now.
"It's been a good quality home as far as we know," he said. "Quality builder. We feel like it's been a pretty good thing. But it could be, if there's a problem, I'd certainly like to know about it."
