Page 47 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2025 - Online Magazine

EXCEPTIONAL SENIORS

That appealed to him, so they moved to Lubbock, and the then existing Fujita scale for assessing the intensity
he went to work at what is now Texas Tech University. of tornadoes, and the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale for
He intended to spend only a few years at Tech and then tornado intensity which was created and is now used
decide what to do; but the winds of change captured worldwide by weather services and in designing
him, and he stayed. He found that he enjoyed teaching. structures. At Texas Tech, he developed and established
Lubbock was a naturally windy place, and he began a PhD program in Wind Science and Engineering, an
studying wind and its effect on structures and how to interdisciplinary curriculum which is the only one of its
build those structures to withstand the winds. kind in the US.
The tornado that blew through Lubbock in May 1970 In 2003, Kishor retired from teaching but continued
was the twist of fate that catapulted Kishor into the convergence research with different disciplines,
forefront of the research and study of wind and its including economists working together to solve the
effect on structures and led to several improvements problems of wind damage. From 2011 to 2015 he was
in weather predictions and in national standards for a Program Peer Reviewer at the National Science
building. The tornado tore up downtown, destroying Foundation, working with panels to decide which
some buildings, and heavily damaging others. Why projects would receive dollars for further research and
were some buildings only damaged while others were development.
destroyed? What caused the destruction–only the wind,
or flying debris? How could this be prevented in the Kishor’s wife died in 2007, and he moved to Carillon
future? Kishor, with colleagues Jim McDonald, Ernie Senior Living in 2018. He says he finally completely
Kiesling, and Joe Minor, spent a year documenting and retired from Texas Tech in August 2024; however, he
analyzing the damage. still goes there daily just to keep in touch and keep his
brain active. Dr. Mehta’s myriad of life experiences led
Up until the Lubbock tornado, the study of the him to Texas Tech, bringing honor and recognition to
effects of wind had used wind tunnels; but those are the windswept plains of West Texas. The world is safer
“artificial wind” and are relatively small and limited because he embraced change and met challenges all
in their usefulness. Kishor recognized that the flat, along the way.
treeless plains surrounding Lubbock were perfect for
large-scale research, so he established the Wind
Engineering Research Field Laboratory at Texas Tech
to study the physics of wind-structure interaction.
In 1987, they built a building on a railroad track in
a field to test wind’s effects on buildings at various
angles. Improvements were made to it over time
to allow them to rotate it more easily; but results
from these experiments became the gold wind load
standard which all wind tunnel research nationwide
now uses to validate their data.
In 1970, Kishor’s assessment of the Lubbock tornado
was the knowledge that created a Center that is
now the National Wind Institute. In 1976, he was
appointed chairman of the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI), which decides how
structures are built to withstand various wind loads.
He was chairman until 1995, during which period
three updates of the standard were developed.

Over the 50+ years that Kishor has been with Texas
Tech, he has enhanced and updated construction
requirements for tornado shelters above-ground for
community use. FEMA has published documents
about shelters based primarily on his research. He
also created a forum of engineers, meteorologists,
and insurance agents which met in 2000 to enhance

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