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With the pressure to demand safe rooms across a wide range of buildings failing, engineers were working on an even more ambitious goal: to change the way buildings are designed and constructed in hurricane zones to survive all but the most severe storms.
Designing a structure to withstand hurricane winds involves two key steps, according to Don Scott, who helped develop hurricane-proof building standards at the American Society of Civil Engineers. First, the roof must be firmly fixed to the walls and the walls to the foundation to transfer the pressure from the hurricane to the strongest part of the building.
Second, windows and other openings must be strong enough to clear debris, such as tree branches being thrown into the air at high velocities during a hurricane. If a window is broken, wind pressure from the hurricane is forced into the building, “like inflating a balloon,” Mr. Scott said. Covering the windows with a special glass can prevent them from breaking, similar to hurricane-proof windows in Florida, he said.
Mr. Scott and his colleagues in the civil engineering community have begun translating findings from the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Joplin report into building requirements that will be included in the next version of the modeling code in 2024.
Here, too, the construction industry has succeeded in sculpting these goals.
Mr. Scott said stronger design standards and impact-resistant windows work for all types of structures. But as the engineering community began its work, Mr. Scott said he received a warning from Gary Ehrlich, head of standards for the National Home Builders Association: enter model codes.
Ms. Thompson, spokesperson for the home builders group, declined to allow Mr Ehrlich to comment.
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