Anyone involved in building today is keenly aware of the effects that devastating hurricanes have had on structures and the reaction by code officials who enact provisions to mitigate such damage.

What started a decade or so ago in Miami/Dade County with the introduction of codes designed to deal with the possibility of glass breakage by hurricane-force winds and rain has spread southwest to Texas and started up the East Coast.

Some say there has been an overreaction to the threat of strong hurricanes on buildings by code officials especially in areas that have not suffered extensive damage from such storms. But interestingly, the International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University has just issued a list of the 20 locations in the United States at greatest risk of suffering hurricane damage and some of it might surprise you.

Yes, New Orleans is at the top of the list. Florida gets eight of the spots-from the Keys on up including Lake Okeechobee. Spots on the Eastern Seaboard fill out most of the rest of the list, moving from Savannah, Ga., to Charleston, S.C., to Wilmington, N.C. and Cape Hatteras.

Then the list takes a geographic leap. There’s New York City at number 20, and Eastern Long Island grabbed the number 8 spot. Cape Cod/Martha’s Vineyard/Nantucket ranked number 17 and Rhode Island checked in at number 19.

So maybe the continued advancement of codes designed to prevent damage from hurricanes and other natural weather-related phenomenon is not an overreaction. 

Drawing on the extensive research which has been done on the causes of storm damage, the glass and architectural metal industry has done its part by introducing products which are designed to meet or exceed the codes and to withstand fierce storms. We provide better products so that you can build better buildings.

Let’s build those structures to conform to these new codes and then let Mother Nature do what she does without the kind of infrastructure damage we’ve suffered in the past.

Let’s make what we build safe.

USG
© Copyright 2006 Key Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
No reproduction of any type without expressed written permission.