Damage to Houston skyscrapers from derecho winds "more severe" than hurricane

A Florida International University study in Houston has concluded that damage from "non-hurricane" events, such as a derecho wind storm, can cause more damage to tall buildings than hurricanes

Conducted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Extreme Events Institute at Florida International University, the results of the study prompted the researchers to call for "a reassessment of wind effects on tall buildings".

"Comparing the observations in both events, the damage resulted from the derecho was more severe than that resulted from the hurricane, despite comparable gust speeds," the study states.

"The observed damage patterns, including extensive glass breakage and facade failures, underscore the need for a reassessment of wind effects on tall buildings to better reflect the complex interactions between wind forces and urban environments."

The study, published on Frontiers in Built Environment, focused on two wind events in Houston in May and July 2024, a powerful derecho and Hurricane Beryl, which caused at least 22 deaths and left nearly 3 million homes and businesses without power upon landfall.

It compared the results of the hurricane, defined as a "sustained" period of high winds and heavy rainfall, versus derechos or downbursts, short, intense bursts of winds with "effects confined to much smaller areas" often correlated with thunderstorms.

Damage across the events included detachment of facade panels, window breakage, and in some cases, structural damage.

"The derecho caused extensive and varied damage to several prominent high-rise buildings in Houston's downtown area," states the study. "These buildings are supposed to be designed for wind speeds up to 67 m/s (150 mph)."

"However, they were significantly impacted by intense wind forces, urban wind channeling, and wind-borne debris, causing both widespread and localized facade damage across their facades. In contrast, during Hurricane Beryl, downtown experienced significantly less glass damage compared to the May 16 derecho."

The study also examined case studies from wind events on buildings elsewhere such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and also included wind tunnel simulation on a tall building model.

It acknowledged the economic and socio-economic of such events, such as resulting repair costs, or traffic impairments due to debris.

The study was performed in light of a growing number of tall buildings, defined as taller than 200 metres, being built around the world as a result of urbanization and expanding populations.

Previously, Dezeen explored how design can help to mitigate and prevent the impact of severe weather events in the Designing for Disaster series and Lever Architecture tested the earthquake capabilities of mass timber.

The photo is courtesy of the National Weather Service via the Damage Assessment Toolkit (DAT) database

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