Vulnerability of Fully Glazed High-Rise Buildings in Tropical Cyclones

This paper examines some of the features of the built environment that are most likely to be related to the potential for damage causation in the event of a tropical cyclone strike in a densely populated urban area. The common incidence of fully glazed buildings, vulnerable as they are to wind-borne debris, forms a central feature of this consideration. The problem of loss estimation from both direct and indirect losses is considered. Use is made in the paper of information available from instances in which this scenario has been played out. While the most common episode in the minds of most research workers is probably the damage caused by Hurricane Alicia in Houston in 1983, the most recent occurrence of this damage mechanism has been in Hong Kong, in September 1999, when Typhoon York caused significant damage to the central business district including Central Plaza, one of Asia’s tallest buildings. The paper indicates a relationship of building damage to wind speed. This relationship, when taken with the uncertainty surrounding the estimation of the magnitude of long return-period wind speeds, results in considerable uncertainty in the estimation of the value of losses in extreme meteorological events. The influence of this level of uncertainty on insurance premiums and reinsurance rates is noted.