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Print this page QUICK LINKS: IBHS Storm Activities - Overview and News Release Storm Research - Engineering reports from the field Storm Track - Live updates from the Weather Channel Storm Strength and Damage - Why kinetic energy is key Storm Photos IBHS Storm Activities/Storm ResearchEngineering Reports from the FieldFortified Field ReportsThursday, October 2, 2008Dr. Tim Reinhold, IBHS Chief Engineer and Senior Vice President of Research, and Rem Brown, Fortified Program Manager, returned Wednesday from the Gulf Coast, after leading a group of five researchers who surveyed damage caused by Hurricane Ike.  This photo shows nine of the 10 Fortified...for safer living® homes in Audubon Village, Bolivar Peninsula, Texas. The group drove through part of the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas and toured the entire peninsula by helicopter. The trip provided an opportunity to get a closer look at homes built to the IBHS Fortified…for safer living® standard in two separate communities, Audubon Village and Laguna Harbor, and to meet with the builder and developer. “The Fortified…for safer living® homes in Audubon Village that were built by Crown Team Texas performed remarkably well structurally, and had minor interior damage,” Reinhold said. “Of the approximately 200 homes that were previously standing in the area, 14 remain. Ten of those houses are Fortified.” (Pictured above) Dr. Reinhold also was able to confirm previous IBHS reports that three other Fortified homes were, in fact, most likely destroyed when older conventionally built homes crashed into them as a result of the storm surge. The IBHS team examined other homes on the peninsula, which upon first glance appeared to perform well – including one home that had been widely featured on the Internet. The team discovered major structural and significant interior damage. “Despite the loss of high-wind-rated roof shingles and poor performance of the secondary water barrier, the Fortified homes fared better than other homes in the area," Reinhold said. "Part of the credit goes to the higher elevation required by the Fortified program and efforts to minimize water intrusion, but much of the credit goes to the builder’s decision to use wood sheathing and wood planking throughout the homes for both interior and exterior wall surfaces, ceilings and floors." The team observed moisture levels in the ceiling and walls that were within the normally accepted range for healthy wood. However, the floor moisture levels were elevated around windows and doors where some water intrusion was observed. “A house might be standing, but if its interior is water logged and debris has gotten inside,” Reinhold explained, “it will still be a long time before people are able to live in their homes again – if ever." The Fortified program focuses on keeping the entire structure intact and making it more resilient, so families can resume their normal lives soon after a storm passes. Beachtown, another community building to the Fortified…for safer living® standard, is located on the east end of Galveston Island. Hurricane Ike’s eye passed over the area, but it did not experience the same levels of wind or storm surge as Bolivar. All homes being built to the Fortified requirements in Beachtown remain intact. Throughout the affected areas in Texas and Louisiana, IBHS and its research partners found widespread roof covering failures – even for high-wind rated products. This finding will be tested in earnest once IBHS begins its building component and systems research at the soon-to-be-built Insurance Center for Building Safety Research. These findings reinforce the decision to focus the first research effort on roof coverings and secondary moisture barriers. The ultimate goal of that testing program will be to clearly identify the best- and worst-performing products among various classes of materials, and to educate consumers and other stakeholders about which products stand up best to extreme weather events. IBHS will provide more details on this damage investigation, including photographs and video, in the coming days. Keep checking the Hurricane Ike section of www.DisasterSafety.org. Fortified Builder on Houston RadioTuesday, September 30, 2008On September 30, KTRH 740AM Morning News in Houston interviewed Chad Murphy, vice president of development in Beachtown, Galveston, about why his community survived Hurricane Ike. Click here to listen to this compelling interview. Hurricane Ike - Still StandingWednesday, September 17, 2008The Institute for Business & Home Safety’s involvement in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike continues.The following are the latest updates.
VideoHurricane Ike Preliminary Damage AssessmentsSunday, September 14, 2008OverviewIBHS Chief Engineer Dr. Tim Reinhold and researchers from five universities, including the University of Florida, Texas Tech University, Florida International University, Louisiana State University and Clemson University, have spent the past two days surveying property damage from Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Houston and the surrounding areas. What follows is a summary of preliminary damage assessments based on the surveying conducted by the teams from these entities. In the coming days, researchers will be reviewing additional information in an attempt to tie roof-covering damage to wind speeds.[Click for larger]  "What we have seen in terms of damage from Ike reinforces IBHS' decision to focus on roofing failures during the first two years of investigation at the Insurance Center for Building Safety Research," Dr. Reinhold said. "Roof coverings were the number one point of concern in this storm." Although Ike contained a large amount of energy, it was a storm where moderately strong winds were spread over a large geographic area rather than very strong winds spread over a small area. Researchers recorded wind gusts of 116-mph in rural areas about 50 miles northeast of Houston, but the wind speeds were lower closer to the metropolitan areas. HoustonThe highest wind gust in the Houston metro area recorded by the University of Florida's data collection towers was a 96-mph gust at the La Porte Municipal Airport. About half a mile away, in more suburban neighborhoods, gusts of just over 70-mph were recorded. Damage in these areas primarily involved roof coverings rather than sheathing, which is consistent with expectations for Category 1 hurricane conditions, Dr. Reinhold said."The tree canopies in these neighborhoods did a good job of protecting the houses. We didn't see any water intrusion," he said. "Some people in these areas had put up shutters, but the majority did not." Newer shingle roofs, tile roofs and metal roofs performed well. Older shingle roofs sustained some damage in terms of lost shingles and underlayment. In downtown Houston, the researchers surveyed the 75-story JP Morgan Chase Tower, which experienced considerable damage, along with other commercial buildings. Damage due to flashing on commercial buildings was widespread, and damage also was seen on commercial buildings with membrane roofs. Generally, downtown Houston looked similar to what was seen in Fort Lauderdale and Miami following Hurricane Wilma in 2005, although the extent of the damage appears less, with the exception of the Chase Tower. "In surveying the debris on the streets and in the parking lots we didn't find much wind-blown gravel, but we did find other larger objects and glass that may have supported the propagation of failure from one building to another," Dr. Reinhold said. "While it appears that Houston may have learned a lesson from Hurricane Alicia in 1983 by reducing the amount of roof gravel, that has not solved all of the problems." GalvestonIn Galveston, where storm surge was the major cause of damage, older buildings built below current flood elevation requirements suffered the most damage. Buildings that were not elevated experienced major storm surge damage on lower levels and damage to roof coverings."Newer buildings that were properly elevated according to modern building codes performed well," Dr. Reinhold said. "We saw quite a bit of window protection such as shutters, fabric shields and accordion-style coverings on newer homes and a lot of plywood on older homes." Overall, brick buildings also appeared to fare well in the storm. There were a few exceptions that will require further investigation, according to Dr. Reinhold. RaywoodIn areas around Raywood, Texas, east of Houston, the University of Florida and Texas Tech University researchers preliminary data shows recorded wind gusts of 116-mph. It was in these areas that damage to roof sheathing and siding were more prevalent, according to IBHS Researcher Tanya Brown, who is a member of the Texas Tech team. This type of damage is consistent with what is expected in Category 2 hurricane conditions."A very large number of multi-story houses and commercial buildings only put window protections on the first floors, which left the upper stories vulnerable to wind-blown debris," Ms. Brown said. "There was a significant amount of damage to commercial roofs in Raywood." Residential and commercial buildings experienced damage to roof coverings, underlayment and roof decking to a lesser extent, Ms. Brown said. Next StepsThis coming week IBHS and university researchers will be reviewing supplementary data and information, including aerial photographs, in an effort to determine the impact that different variables had on the roof-covering damage that has been observed."We will be trying to tie what we have seen in Hurricanes Ike and Gustav into a larger assessment relating each case to roof age, slope and wind speeds," Dr. Reinhold said. "The damage we have seen from Gustav and Ike drives home the need to establish clear secondary water protection definitions and standards that are based on achieving the kind of performance we want in terms of keeping water out of homes when these storms occur. We are going to have to engage the roofing industry, as well as insurers in that discussion." Please continue to check the IBHS Web site for additional research information as it becomes available. Quick links to the special Hurricane Ike section on the site are below for your convenience. Hurricane IkeFriday, September 12, 2008As Hurricane Ike is about to make landfall in Texas, the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is engaged with several partners to conduct research that will help define the severity of the winds and wind-related damage throughout the area being impacted by Ike. IBHS, along with FEMA and Riker Consulting, are helping fund deployment efforts involving five universities from three states. The goal is to gather critical data that will improve risk modeling accuracy and enable reproduction of realistic storm conditions at the IBHS' Insurance Center for Building Safety Research. IBHS News Release
Storm Track - Ike's PathStorm Strength and Damage Tropical Cyclone Destructive Potential By Integrated Kinetic EnergyBy Mark D. Powell And Timothy A. Reinhold IBHS Summary: New Storm Measurement Warns of Ike’s Fury The wind speeds associated with Hurricane Ike may classify it as a Category 2 storm, but it’s potential to cause storm surge like that experienced during Hurricane Katrina make it a powerful threat. Ike is generating about the same amount of total kinetic energy than Katrina had at its peak, said IBHS Chief Engineer Dr. Tim Reinhold. This puts Ike at 5.1 out of 6 for surge potential on the Wind and Surge Destructive Potential classification scale. The scale was developed by Mark Powell, research meteorologist with the Hurricane Research Division at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories and Dr. Reinhold. It assigns a numerical value to storms that represents more than the sustained maximum wind speed by incorporating other physical characteristics of the hurricane, such as the overall size of the storm and the area affected by winds exceeding certain threshold values. The numerical value associated with a storm is similar to the Saffir-Simpson scale. Tropical cyclone damage potential, as currently defined by the Saffir–Simpson scale and the maximum sustained surface wind speed in the storm, fails to consider the area impact of winds likely to force surge and waves or cause particular levels of damage. Integrated kinetic energy represents a framework that captures the physical process of ocean surface stress forcing waves and surge while also taking into account structural wind loading and the spatial coverage of the wind. Integrated kinetic energy was computed from gridded, objectively analyzed surface wind fields of 23 hurricanes representing large and small storms. A wind destructive potential rating was constructed by weighting wind speed threshold contributions to the integrated kinetic energy, based on observed damage in Hurricanes Andrew, Hugo, and Opal. A combined storm surge and wave destructive potential rating was assigned according to the integrated kinetic energy contributed by winds greater than tropical storm force. The ratings are based on a 1–6 range, with continuous fits to allow for storms as weak as 0.1 or as strong as 5.99. PhotosClick for full-size.
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