Developers in Gulf Coast communities that were severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina failed to meet standards that could have protected homes from the storm’s rage, according to a preliminary report issued by a Colorado State University professor and a team of engineers from around the country.
Many homes built after 1992, when some building codes were toughened after Hurricane Andrew pummeled the region, fared better than those built under earlier codes, said John van de Lindt, civil-engineering professor at CSU, who served as the principal investigator on the project.
But other homes built as recently as last year were severely damaged because builders didn’t follow standards that could have saved them, van de Lindt said.
The study, released Thursday, found that nails, especially those in roofs, were placed too far apart, among other things.
In one community built within the past five years, he said, wind ripped through walls, allowing rain into many homes.
“The general rule was if the gable wall was lost, the rain came in sideways. And it was as if you put a few swimming pools into your house,” van de Lindt said.
Aluminum siding that could have protected many of the homes ripped away from the outer walls because it wasn’t installed properly, he added.
The researchers didn’t study building codes, which differ from one community to the next, to determine whether they were adequate. But even if building codes were stringent enough, “builders don’t have a full understanding of which code to use and when to use it,” van de Lindt said Thursday.
The researchers studied housing developments in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, most of them within 5 miles of Interstate 10. None was in New Orleans.
Robert Hartwig, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, said the finding didn’t surprise him. Building codes in the Gulf region are too weak, and local governments don’t enforce them properly, he said.
Coastal communities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, all of which were hit hard by Katrina, don’t have uniform building codes, and the lack of uniformity is a recipe for disaster, Hartwig said.
The study came one day after the head of a team of engineering experts told a U.S. Senate committee that “malfeasance” during construction of New Orleans levees might have been one reason for their catastrophic failure.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
