Structural Damage from Hurricane Katrina
Structural Damage from Hurricane Katrina
2
SlideRuleEra (Structural)
(OP)
The American Wood Council issued a six page report today (October 7) summarizing certain aspects of residential damage from Katrina (it is kind of an infomercial, but still worthwhile). I don't see it posted on the web, so have put it on my site (first item on home page, see link below). Will leave it there for a few days.






RE: Structural Damage from Hurricane Katrina
In reality they were finding so many violations of the building codes, the one that existed at the time of construction, that they quite looking when the fingers started moving.
Taking out the surge damaged areas the worst damage was in houses that weren't tied to gather. As an acquaintance put it, "The hurricane clip by itself isn't worth jack crap". The roofs decked with 3/8" thick material nearly all failed for essentially the same reason. Even where the nails hit the truss the nails pulled through. Another prominent failure was where the bottom plate was shot in instead of anchored with anchor bolts, the whole house moved or the wall caved in. Another prominent failure was with metal roofs peeling off the roof decking. The battens were just nailed in the decking and no effort was made to hit the truss. The result was that the whole thing peeled up, the metal roof still attached to the battens.
The jest of it is that you can take some wind without structural damage if the proper design elements are called out and you get a first class construction job that uses the elements.
RE: Structural Damage from Hurricane Katrina
RE: Structural Damage from Hurricane Katrina