SEA 



SCIENCE 



a few low-cost but carefully 

 planned improvements. Proper 

 connections can hold together a 

 house in winds of up to 130 or 140 

 mph — more than Hurricane 

 Fran's 120-mph gusts — and a 

 high floor elevation and a deep 

 piling foundation can protect a 

 building from flooding, erosion 

 and waves. 



Beyond the coast, these same 

 measures can equip inland homes 

 to weather hurricanes, floods, • 

 tornadoes and other severe storms. 



The best and least expensive 

 way to make a building storm- 

 resistant is to modify it while it's 

 under construction, Rogers says. 

 "Everything is open, you can get 

 to everything, you know how it 

 fits together, you know the 

 hazards and can build accord- 

 ingly," he says. 



Retrofitting older buildings 

 can be more difficult. But it's 

 often worth the effort to make 

 selected low-cost improvements 

 even if the building cannot be 

 brought to present codes. 



"Incremental improvements 

 can make a big difference in 

 damage to buildings in the future," 



Rogers says. "The lesser conditions will happen more frequently. 

 We only may get 130-mile-per-hour gusts once every 50 years, 

 but we might get 1 10-mile-per-hour gusts every 25 or 30 years." 



FLOODING 



Decades of experience lie behind Rogers' advice. Over the last 

 22 years, he's surveyed the structural damage from every major 

 hurricane that has struck the East and Gulf coasts. 



What has this work taught him? 



"In simplest terms, the key is not to get wet and never, ever get 

 hit by a wave," he says. 



Buildings are most often destroyed by the waves and erosion 

 that accompany storm-induced floods. Erosion causes structures to 

 collapse, and the power of even small waves can pound a home into 

 pieces. As unlikely as it sounds, research has shown that a 2-foot 

 breaking wave can easily destroy a wall designed for 120-mph winds, 

 Rogers says. 



The remedies are a deep piling foundation and a high floor 

 elevation. Piling foundations on oceanfront homes extend 5 to 10 feet 



Spencer Rogers points out a spot where a hurricane strap 

 is needed. High winds could take the roof off this porch. 



A bracket connects a column 

 and a beam that supports the roof. 



below sea level so that waves can 

 pass through unimpeded. In the 

 midst of a hurricane, this feature 

 can save a house from 5- or 6-foot 

 waves above the storm surge. 



Even existing buildings can 

 be retrofitted to prevent flood 

 damage. After Hurricane Emily in 

 1993, more than 50 homeowners 

 on Hatteras Island raised their 

 houses by 2 to 10 feet, Rogers 

 says. They did this because they'd 

 been flooded as many as three 

 times in the previous 10 years. 



"And while that sounds 

 extreme, if you look at the cost of 

 raising a building, it's actually 

 surprisingly low for a drastic 

 improvement in flood risk," he 

 says. 



Most of the expense comes in 

 replacing the foundation and 

 extending connections for sewer 

 and utilities. The paybacks include 

 new space under the building for 

 storage or parking. You can even 

 qualify for much lower flood 

 insurance premiums in flood- 

 prone areas, which can help pay 

 for the construction costs. 



Another technique is to move 

 low-elevation utilities such as 

 electrical outlets and switches that would short out and interrupt 

 power to the rest of the house if they were flooded. An electrician can 

 remove them and install replacements in higher elevations so they 

 won't be as apt to get wet. Raising equipment or appliances — air 

 conditioners, water heaters, heat pumps, water pumps — that are 

 located in a flood-prone area of the house is also smart. 



WIND 



The maxim for success in real estate is location, location, 

 location. 



In hurricane-resistant construction, it's connections, connections, 

 connections, Rogers says. 



Wind damage is best prevented by strengthening the connec- 

 tions between the roof and walls and by protecting the integrity of the 

 building envelope (roof, walls, windows and doors) from wind- 

 blown water. 



"It's not the board that breaks in a hurricane," Rogers explains. 

 "It's what holds two boards together — usually a nail or a screw. It's 

 critically important that everything be strongly tied together." 



32 AUTUMN 1998 



