Performance of Wood-Frame Structures during Hurricane Katrina
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 21, Issue 2
Abstract
The costliest natural disaster in U.S. history was Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005 at 7:10 a.m. EDT (6:10 CDT, local time) in Plaquemines Parrish, La. Tragically, Katrina caused widespread damage and loss of life but also provided an opportunity to collect data on wood-frame construction which will be useful for design engineers and building code officials in order to design safer and stronger buildings in the future. The objective of this study was to gather and process perishable wind damage data on residential wood-frame structures in nonflooded regions of Mississippi that can be used by the research and design code development community to improve the performance of wood-frame structures to strong wind loading. This study consisted of 3 days of data acquisition of wind damage to wood-frame structures along the U.S. Gulf Coast and was funded by the National Science Foundation. A total of 27 case studies, ranging from entire subdivisions to individual wood-frame structures, were examined in detail. This paper presents both general and specific observations during data reconnaissance. It was generally found that most residential wood-frame construction in the regions inspected are built using conventional construction practices, when engineered or prescriptive construction should be used. The paper is divided into (1) structural; (2) nonstructural; and (3) general observations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This study was sponsored by the National Science Foundation through the Hurricane Katrina Quick Response Damage SGER Fund, Grant No. NSFCMS-0553058 under the program direction of Dr. Richard Fragazy, Civil and Mechanical Systems. The project was entitled “Collection of Perishable Data on Woodframe Residential Structures in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina.” That support is gratefully acknowledged.
References
APA-The Engineered Wood Association. (2005). Introduction to wall bracing, F430.
American Forest and Paper Association/American Wood Council (AF & PA/AWC). (1995). Wood frame construction manual, High Wind Ed., Washington, D.C.
American National Standards Institute/American Forest and Paper Association NDS (ANSI/AF&PA). (2005). National design specification for wood construction, Washington, D.C.
ASCE. (2005). “Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures.” ASCE 7-05, Reston, Va.
Blake, E. S., Jarrell, J. D., Rappaport, E. N., and Landsea, C. W. (2005). “The deadliest, costliest, and most intense hurricanes from 1851 to 2004 (and other frequently requested hurricane facts).” Technical Memorandum No. NWS TPC 4, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
International Residential Code (IRC). (2003). International Code Council, Washington, D.C.
Jarrell, J. D., Mayfield, B. M., Rappaport, E. N., and Landsea, C. W. (2001). “The deadliest, costliest, and most intense hurricanes from 1900 to 2000 (and other frequently requested hurricane facts).” Technical Memorandum No. NWSTPC 3, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, http://www.noaa.gov (Dec. 3, 2005).
Kirby, J. R., and Scislo, C. (2005). “Hurricane Katrina: Observations from the field.” Professional roofing magazine, http://www.professionalroofing.net/article.aspx?A_ID=762 (December).
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2005). “Katrina 2005 post-storm wind analyses.” Mission catalog, Hurricane Research Division, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Washington, D.C., http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Strom_pages/Katrina /wind.html .
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 21 • Issue 2 • April 2007
Pages: 108 - 116
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 30, 2006
Accepted: Jun 20, 2006
Published online: Apr 1, 2007
Published in print: Apr 2007
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.