Date of Last Revision

2023-05-03 05:14:29

Major

Civil Engineering - Cooperative Education

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Date of Expected Graduation

Spring 2018

Abstract

2017 was one of the worst hurricane seasons on record. Two major hurricanes hit to date; one in Houston, one across the chain of islands South of Florida and then on to Florida directly. What ensued was massive flooding and total destruction of many structures.

To protect against these natural disasters, a set of building codes is in place. While this is effective for most buildings stateside, it is hardly a consideration outside the U.S. Many of the structures built in the islands were built with little regard to any sort of code in mind. Even in the states where codes exist to resist against hurricane damage, these guidelines seemed to be inadequate.

In this paper, I have analyzed the cause of these failures and attempt to determine if the building requirements were adequate. I looked at the damage done by both major hurricanes to date, Harvey and Irma, across the areas they effected the worst.

Research Sponsor

Dr. Anil Patnaik

First Reader

Dr. David Roke

Second Reader

Dr. Qindan Huang

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