Combined Loss due to Hurricanes and Storm Surge

摘要

Residential buildings in coastal areas are often at risk to hurricanes which can result in both wind and surge damage. In the United States, economic losses average about $5.4 billion annually from hurricanes and greater than 75% of declared Federal disasters are a result of flooding. Although current design codes do consider load combinations, these are generally for non-environmental (natural hazard) loading and focus on dead and live loads and then their combination with each environmental load being considered individually. In this paper correlations between hurricane winds and wind-induced surge from a flood standpoint are considered in order to estimate the loss to residential construction due to combined wind and surge using assembly-based vulnerability. The method presented herein for estimating loss due to combined wind and surge in hurricanes may be used for design code assessment and calibration, retrofit planning for buildings in coastal areas, disaster planning purposes, and potentially for insurance underwriting.