Protecting infrastructure from hurricanes:

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Protecting infrastructure from hurricanes

• Lessons learned about the importance and
  effectiveness of adopting and following modern
  building codes
• Tim Reinhold
• Institute for Business Home Safety

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Design Standards for Manufactured Housing

• Pre- 1976
• No standards, lots of singlewides
• Generally very poor performance
• 1976-1994
• HUD Code, more doublewides
• Two design levels not tied to modern wind std.
• Better performance but lots of damage
• Post 1994
• Wind zones 1-3
• ASCE 7-88 loads and wind map
• Clearly superior performance

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Strengthening Codes Works
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Attached Structures
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New Commercial Structure in Punta Gorda
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Older Commercial Structure across street in Punta
Gorda
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Windborne Debris

• Primary Sources
• Roofing Materials
• Siding Materials
• Vegetative Debris
• Structural Components
• Unsecured Items (Patio Furniture, Potted Plants,
  lawn ornaments, etc.)

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Elimination of Gravel Ballast
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Debris and Internal Pressures
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Punta Gorda City Hall Annex

• Mitigation Success
• Annex in use
• City Hall gutted

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Aggregate Losses for Charlotte County and Punta
Gorda

• All Building Permits 1.8 Billion
• Residential Garage Doors 2.6 Million
• Shingle Roofs 114 Million
• Tile Roofs 87 Million
• Residential Cages 16 Million

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Roof covering and soffit failures lead to
interior damage
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Roof Covering Failures - Tile

• Tile Roof Damage
• Tile insufficiently attached to roof deck

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Continuing Problems Garage Door Failures

• Failed primarily due to lack of reinforcement and
  track bracing for design pressures
• Some were also damaged by windborne debris

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Continuing Problems Double Entry Doors
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Continuing Problems Gable Ends

• Gable End Failures
• Sheathing loss
• Un-braced gables

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Reducing Hurricane Risks Losses
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Conclusions

• Buildings built under the latest codes where
  enforcement was good generally performed well
  structurally (some exceptions)
• Keys are
• Good up to date code
• Uniform and thorough enforcement
• Builders and subs who understand and appreciate
  the risks
• Special inspections for key functions

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Benefit-Cost Studies for Building Codes

• Texas AM Study for TDI Code
• For individual provisions large variability
• For system of provisions B-C 4 to 7
• Seismic Code Study for Utah and LA
• B-C of 4.3 for Utah
• B-C of 6 to 16 for LA

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Recommendations

• Appropriate funds for National Windstorm Loss
  Reduction Program authorized last year
• Increase support for NOAA / FEMA in wind field
  modeling
• Increase support for NOAA in hardening and
  backing up ASOS stations
• Add incentives for code adoption and enforcement
• Add incentives for mitigation