Investigation of Geotechnical Impacts in Response to 2022 Hurricane Ian
Publication: Geo-Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall near the city of Fort Myers, Florida, as a category 4 hurricane, which brought sustained winds of 150 mph, observed storm surge heights of up to 12 ft, and rainfall totals up to 20 in. Coastal communities around Fort Myers were the most heavily impacted, including 148 deaths and an estimated 113 billion dollars’ worth of damage. The inflation-adjusted economic impact is projected to make Hurricane Ian the third most costly hurricane in United States history. Three weeks after the storm impact, from October 18 to 22, a five-member NSF-sponsored Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association team was deployed to Fort Myers and the surrounding areas to study the geotechnical impacts resulting from Hurricane Ian. Primary technologies used to study impacts included a terrestrial light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), soil sampling equipment, and mobile phone cameras. Additionally, two team members returned during November 29–30 to study the recovery progress and implement a multispectral imaging workflow to further investigate impacted structures. Primary surveyed locations include the city of Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, Port Charlotte, and the Peace and Caloosahatchee Rivers. Primary observations include a rail bridge failure, sea wall failures, varying degrees of foundation performance, and high degrees of scour and erosion along coastal sites. This GEER deployment allowed for rapid and high-fidelity data collection on impacts related to geotechnical assets following a major hurricane. The dataset and subsequent GEER report from this deployment will allow for improved study of hydraulic and erosional processes related to soil-structure interactions, which will in time improve flood and storm design practices in coastal communities.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. (2023). Florida medical examiners commission hurricane Ian deaths., FDLE.
Gallant, A., Nichols, E., Molaei, S., Baser, T., Zhang, D., and Herndon, H. (2023). Geotechnical Reconnaissance and Investigation of Impacts from Hurricane Ian. Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association,.
Gardner, M., Nichols, E., Stark, N., Lemnitzer, A., and Frost, D. (2023). “Multispectral Imaging for Identification of High-Water Marks in Postdisaster Flood Reconnaissance”. Natural Hazards Review, 24(2), 06023002.
Grant, T. “Timeline: When Did Officials Tell People to Evacuate from Hurricane Ian?” ABC News, October 4, 2022. go.com/US/officials-people-evacuate-hurricane-ian/story?id=90931063.
Kossin, J. P., Knapp, K. R., Olander, T. L., and Velden, C. S. (2020). Global increase in major tropical cyclone exceedance probability over the past four decades. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(22), 11975–11980.
NOAA Office for Coastal Management. (2021). “Hurricane Costs.” Coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/hurricanecosts.html#:~:text=Of%20the%20310%20billion%2Ddollar,6%2C697%20between%201980%20and%202021. Accessed May 2023.
NOAA. (2022). National Centers for environmentral information, monthly national climate report for September 2022, published online October 2022, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/national/202209.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters. (2023). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/. https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73.
Zhang, G., et al. "Tropical cyclone motion in a changing climate." Science Advances 6.17 (2020): eaaz7610.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Published online: Feb 22, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Architectural engineering
- Bridge engineering
- Bridge failures
- Bridges
- Bridges (by type)
- Building systems
- Climates
- Coastal engineering
- Coastal processes
- Coasts, oceans, ports, and waterways engineering
- Disaster risk management
- Disasters and hazards
- Environmental engineering
- Failures (by type)
- Geotechnical engineering
- Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones
- Infrastructure
- Light (artificial)
- Man-made disasters
- Meteorology
- Natural disasters
- Precipitation
- Railroad bridges
- Skew bridges
- Storm surges
- Storms
- Structural engineering
- Urban and regional development
- Urban areas
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.