How many houses were affected? From the photographs the only one with any notable damage seems to be the roofless corner property, but that may just reflect the photographer's attention rather than anything else.

Architect (are you an architect- or is that just your 'name'? :) )

The house oppersite had lost an outbuilding but the damage was superficial compared to the unfortunate resident pictured here. Luckily I believe he was insured- unlike many others in neighbouring Balsall Heath. This area of Sparkhill is better off than the area where I am writing this from (Ladypool Road).,

Judging from the local BBC news coverage that there is more damage- but mainly to tiles and ridge tiles. However, the two properties next to this corner ones have had their roofs lifted by a few inches- indicating to me that both of these roofs will also have to be removed and rebuilt. I don't know if those people are insured.

The Local BBC coverage link is here;

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2005/10/13/tornado_rips_roof_off_feature.shtml

Tom Fenn- Photojournalist

In my humble opinion, this is gonna happen an awful lot in the decades to come.
The British architectural system isn't designed for sporadic ultra-high windspeeds, and never was.
The legacy of all our architectural methods, resulting in modern 'lego estate' design, has no design laws to prevent the odd tornado concentrating it's wind power within non-aerodynamically sculpted housing units and street convergences.

Thanks for the info lads.

Ol - the problem isn't "non-aerodynamic" designs, if such a concept exists. Buildings in the UK are designed to withstad average windspeeds based on empirical data; if we see a change, as appears to be the case here, then there will be mass failures. New buildings may be more at risk becuase they are designed right down to the wire, but on the other hand age-related deterioration in older buildings may make them susceptible.

Perhaps one thing we have to consider - and I don't know the answer to this - is whether it is even possible to design buildings to be resistant to these kind of wind speeds (at a sensible cost). One to ponder.