Performance of Structures under Successive Hurricanes: Observations from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria

Prevatt, David O.; Roueche, David B.; Aponte-Bermúdez, Luis D.; Kijewski-Correa, Tracy; Li, Y.; Chardon, Patricia; Cortes, M.; Puerto, C. López del; Mercado, Aurelio; Muñoz, Josefina; Morales, Annareli

doi:10.1061/9780784482018.101

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Conversely, respondents were more likely to expect damage to a concrete house than a wood house in an earthquake, with X 2 (9, N = 345) = 70, p < 0.001. Our findings align with previous studies in the Caribbean, showing that contractors and homeowners prefer heavier reinforced concrete and masonry housing to withstand hurricanes [13,14,28,50]. In Puerto Rico, Goldwyn et al [28] also noted examples of contractors and homeowners explaining that wood housing is safer in earthquakes but still opting for concrete construction because hurricanes are more common.…”

Section: Respondents View Concrete Housing As Safer In Hurricanes And...supporting

confidence: 90%

“…Roofs are typically built with wood structures supporting corrugated galvanized iron (CGI) roof panels [49]. The flat concrete slab roof design enables households to incrementally build additional stories, frequently building light-framed wood second stories [50], saving financial and material resources until they can build with infill or confined masonry. Variation in what is constructed across the island is partly due to the path of Hurricane Maria's highest wind speeds and subsequent damage.…”

Section: Puerto Rican Housing Construction Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multi-Hazard Housing Safety Perceptions of Those Involved with Housing Construction in Puerto Rico

2022

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Globally, hazards are increasingly threatening housing each year, and housing constructed outside the formal sector may be particularly vulnerable. Yet, limited studies have investigated the perceptions of those responsible for designing and building this housing. These safety perceptions motivate the informal housing construction practices that ultimately determine housing safety. Thus, this study investigates the multi-hazard housing safety perceptions of individuals involved with housing construction in Puerto Rico. We surveyed 345 builders and hardware store employees across Puerto Rico to understand their perceptions of expected housing damage in hurricanes and earthquakes, important mitigation measures, and barriers to safer housing construction. Our results reveal that prior hazard experience did not influence perceptions of expected housing damage, but previous housing construction experience did. Respondents viewed wood and concrete housing as less safe in hurricanes and earthquakes, respectively. Yet, respondents appeared uncertain about the importance of mitigation measures for concrete houses in earthquakes, likely due to a combination of limited earthquake experience and “hidden” reinforcement detailing in a reinforced concrete house. Interestingly, our results also show that respondents perceive technical construction capacity as a major barrier to safer informal housing construction rather than resource constraints alone. These findings suggest areas for technical construction capacity development for Puerto Rico’s informal construction sector.

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Section: Respondents View Concrete Housing As Safer In Hurricanes And...supporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Puerto Rican Housing Construction Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Hazard Housing Safety Perceptions of Those Involved with Housing Construction in Puerto Rico

2022

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“…As such, Yabucoa experienced the most powerful forces from the Hurricane before it weakened as it progressed across the Archipelago, evident in the severe housing damages left behind throughout the municipality. At the same time, Yabucoa has a significant portion of their more vulnerable populations living along the coastline in well-established fishing communities, and up in the mountainous areas–both of which have posed significant vulnerability to damage from hurricanes (Prevatt et al 2018 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities and Housing Reconstruction in Puerto Rico After Hurricanes Irma and Maria

2021

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Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused widespread destruction in Puerto Rico in 2017. In the absence of government recovery support and denial of assistance based on ownership, many households have engaged in a process of informal reconstruction. While informal reconstruction can provide an alternate path to recovery, its uncontrolled and unchecked nature carries inherent safety risks and ambiguous legal status. Due to the inherent uncertainties in informal housing and its known consequences, it is important to identify households that may be more likely to engage in informal reconstruction, to promote and support safe building practices and access to resources. This is especially important in a context where informality is often seen as ‘inevitable.’ Socioeconomic vulnerability is a useful framework to understand these trends as vulnerability can restrict a household’s ability to engage with the formal construction sector, encouraging those households to pursue other methods of recovery. This study aims to understand the individual and compounding effects of socioeconomic vulnerabilities on household use of informal reconstruction. Data collection includes household surveys ( N = 305) in the municipalities of Loíza and Yabucoa in Puerto Rico. Results suggest that socioeconomic vulnerabilities work in a compounding manner affecting household decisions to use informal reconstruction; specifically, a compounding effect exists in the combination of the absence of ownership documents and unemployment. Results from this study can inform housing recovery programs to identify households that are more likely to engage in informal housing reconstruction and ensure they receive the right support and resources to promote safe recovery.

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“…The seamlessness, expansiveness and efficiency of these information flows have created the potential to broaden the community that reconnaissance engages and serves. In an attempt to mainstream these new digital workflows and flexible online collaboration models, the authors' piloted a NHE community response to the 2017 hurricane season, which initiated with a GEER-sponsored response to Hurricane Harvey Pinelli et al, 2018;Prevatt et al, 2018;Cox et al, 2019). This helped to inform their subsequent launch of the StEER network in 2018, which formalized these digital modalities of perishable data collection and knowledge generation within the NHE community, including the potential for strategic sampling to swiftly generate large volumes of geotagged damage assessments for statistical analysis of underlying damage patterns (Roueche et al, 2018).…”

Section: Origins and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, this event reiterated the need to reframe disaster risk for small island nations. As was the case with Hurricanes Irma and Maria's impacts on the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico (Prevatt et al, 2018), the projected losses in Hurricane Dorian were a sizeable percentage of the annual GDP of the Bahamas and thus posits if a more risk-averse approach to design is warranted in such settings. But perhaps the most critical lesson in Hurricane Dorian was the realization that early-arriving NHE reconnaissance teams can provide immediate value to the affected communities and those supporting their recovery.…”

Section: Major Learningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

StEER: A Community-Centered Approach to Assessing the Performance of the Built Environment after Natural Hazard Events

Kijewski-Correa

Roueche

Mosalam

et al. 2021

Front. Built Environ.

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Since its founding in 2018, the Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER) Network has worked to deepen the capacity of the Natural Hazards Engineering (NHE) community for coordinated and standardized assessments of the performance of the built environment following natural hazard events. This paper positions StEER within the field of engineering reconnaissance and the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI), outlining its organizational model for coordinated community-led responses to wind, seismic, and coastal hazard events. The paper’s examination of StEER’s event response workflow, engaging a range of hardware and delivering a suite of products, demonstrates StEER’s contributions in the areas of: workflow and data standardization, data reliability to enable field-observation-driven research & development, efficiency in data collection and dissemination to speed knowledge sharing, near-real- time open data access for enhanced coordination and transparency, and flexibility in collaboration modes to reduce the “overhead” associated with reconnaissance and foster broad NHE community engagement in event responses as part of field and virtual assessment structural teams (FAST/VAST). StEER’s creation of efficient systems to deliver well-documented, reliable data suitable for diverse re-uses as well as rapidly disseminated synopses of the impact of natural hazard events on the built environment provide a distinctive complement to existing post-event reconnaissance initiatives. The implementation of these policies, protocols and workflows is then demonstrated with case studies from five events illustrating StEER’s different field response strategies: the Nashville, Tennessee Tornadoes (2020) – a Hazard Gradient Survey; the Palu Earthquake and Tsunami in Indonesia (2018) – a Representative Performance Study; the Puerto Rico Earthquakes (2019/2020) – using Targeted Case Studies; Hurricane Laura (2020) – leveraging Rapid Surveys to enable virtual assessments; and Hurricane Dorian (2019) in the Bahamas – a Phased Multi-Hazard Investigation. The use of these strategies has enabled StEER to respond to 36 natural hazard events, involving over 150 different individuals to produce 45 published reports/briefings, over 5000 publicly available app-based structural assessments, and over 1600 km (1000 mi) of street-level panoramic imagery in its first 2years of operation.

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Performance of Structures under Successive Hurricanes: Observations from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria

Cited by 13 publications

References 3 publications

Multi-Hazard Housing Safety Perceptions of Those Involved with Housing Construction in Puerto Rico

Multi-Hazard Housing Safety Perceptions of Those Involved with Housing Construction in Puerto Rico

Socioeconomic Vulnerabilities and Housing Reconstruction in Puerto Rico After Hurricanes Irma and Maria

StEER: A Community-Centered Approach to Assessing the Performance of the Built Environment after Natural Hazard Events

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