Oklahoma city here.... I've been in 100 mph.
I hope they can, building a structure like that in hurricane country.
I personally can't imagine it, here in Washington state, home of tall trees, a lethal wind is about 60 mph gusts... If this region ever saw winds like they annually expect in the south, there'd be no such thing as a Douglas fir here.
I rode out Charley last year at my grandmother's house. She has one of these post-war concrete block tract homes that are common as weeds in older Florida neighborhoods - anyone who's spent time down here will immediately know the kind of house I'm talking about. We got recorded sustained winds of 90-95 mph at City Hall (about 3 miles away) with gusts over 100 mph.
She has an aluminum screened in porch on the back of the house. During the height of the storm you could hear the wind picking up the porch roof and banging it back down. I was afraid that it might rip off, and then the rest of the porch might come through the sliding glass door, so I placed a mattress in front of the door and braced it up to at least slow down any debris. It never did rip apart, though.
I've been in 100+ MPH winds. You're on your hands and knees, walking upright is not possible.
The few homemade films I have viewed of people riding out these storms show the sound as being like a speeding train bearing down on you. I'm sure the noise heightens the terror.
Drove through 74 mph wind in a West Texas sand storm. Um, make that a mud storm.
Made it through several floods. Each time watched the weather conditions visually and on tv. We know enough to prepare. One 23 foot flood, the local LE denied anything was amiss. We had the good common sense to pack and head to high ground.
Yes, wind gusts are one thing but to listen to the wind roaring/shrieking for hours without letup can really put you close to the edge.
I rode out a storm in the Bay of Biscay for 18 hours in a 36' sailboat. For eight hours my wind speed indicator was pegged at 60 knots but the wind got much higher than that. My mast was close to 50' off the water line and we had average wave height about 3/4 of that with some higher. Then the wind got really bad and blew the tops off of the waves and the ocean flat. We took three knock downs with the mast going under water. I was flat scared.