I was watching a documentary on Ukraine, and there's a clip where they show Mariupol residents using adhesive tape on windows and mirrors to help reduce shattering in the event they experienced nearby concussive blasts from ordnance. I understand that the city in question was virtually leveled by both governments, so I don't know the results of using tape there, but I can assume their efforts were somewhat initially effective. However, for domestic applications (i.e. earthquakes with prolonged aftershocks or small-scale civil unrest, etc.), would it worth it to exert yourself and expend the supplies to do the same to your home's windows?

See 11:56

People use to do it for hurricanes and tornados.  Was good intentions but poor result.  The result was it created large flying projectiles of pieces of glass.  For an earthquake I wouldn't think there'd be any time to do so, even if it was deemed effective.

I'd look at 3M window film or a similar product.

This is how you tell the newcomers from the experienced residents when a hurricane comes to town.  Taping does nothing for your windows except leave big lines of tape residue on the glass that looks like shit for several years after the storm.

Would like to get the 3M security film for daily use and have looked into plylox for being able to add precut plywood window covers. I'm not in hurricane zone so its stayed low on the list for now but would like to have on hand eventually.

https://plylox.com/

Normally, I'd consider this outstanding advice as I'm quite familiar with 3M's security film. However, in exigent circumstances where both the opportunity and means of solely using tape (duct, painter's, masking, electrical, etc.) in emergency situations involving unprepared structures is what I'm mainly interested in. For example, if one were to experience one of the adverse environments above at someone else's house or if one had to recommend unorthodox safety measures to another person at a remote location.

I did go down the rabbit hole a little bit and found that an Ukrainian site (owned by a Ukrainian politician) advises such practices:



https://eng.obozrevatel.com/section-life/news-not-just-duct-tape-how-to-protect-windows-from-shock-waves-03-01-2024.html

However, a Ukrainian civilian reported the ineffectiveness as some above have posted:


(this link also has a lot of pictures of the various ways people barricaded their windows)
https://birdinflight.com/en/architectura-2/20220524-dmytro-zaiets.html

Alternatively, I scoured some Japanese sites and found one blogger who cited a FEMA hurricane publication that called the practice a "myth" despite reports of Japanese citizens "panic buying" adhesive materials :



https://blog.gaijinpot.com/tweet-of-the-week-50-typhoon-hagibis-causes-panic-buying-of-tape/

Alternatively, Hong Kong government also encouraged such practice:


https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2164276/super-typhoon-mangkhut-hong-kong-shops-run-out

It would be interesting to see if the same effectiveness is reported with those who continually deal with large earthquakes and their subsequent and prolonged aftershocks like in Japan or Chile. But this whole thing is funny because a couple of months ago one of our glass-framed pictures, which was secured through 3M's "Command" strips, failed, and it fell and broke into hundreds of small shards.. the easiest part of the cleanup was picking up the large pieces

I could probably make some good money there with a bottle of Goo-Gone and a heat gun

Scalped

Not 'cane rated but tornado...

Texas Tech University has had a tornado lab going for decades.   TTU is in Lubbock TX.  Lubbock was vacuumed up and thrown over more that one county of TX in a F5 tornado in the early 1970s.

The lab built an air gun to simulate a common 2X4 wood stud moving at tornado speeds.

For a time in my life I was a vendor to the lab and got to go there.

I'll just say that a cinder block wall is does not hinder a tornado 2X4.



Now about taping windows...

Once upon a time.
There was a door.
This door had double pane window.
A veteran had a new build.
Vet was doing reloads with new build.
OOPS
NOW everyone is awake.
Ok nobody hurt and the only thing that the projectile could have hit is a cotton plant.
Well there is now a hole in the glass.
After cooling overnight there are cracks.
Ok tape the glass
All of it both panes inside and out.

Short answer is tape allowed me to put 42 pounds of glass in the trash at once.  I'm still finding some of the remaining 87 pounds to this day.



I live in tornado country

Tape before tornado Nope No time
If a tornado took a window
I'd tape just to control what's left

Tape for 'cane Nope... If I live in FL folks are gonna talk about my house as looking unfriendly... boarded windows.

Board up the windows .