Hurricane Wind Speeds (3-Sec. Gust vs Sustained)

[STR04]

Check out this design implementation and see how Florida is designing its Enhanced Hurricane Protection Areas (EHPA) by increasing the wind speed to a 1000 year event vs. an importance factor of 1.15 for a 100 year event. If you think your buildings are safe remember to deduct 40mph from your design should you think about riding out the storm. See Table G-1

http://floridadisaster.org/bpr/Resp...4SESP/Individual Elements/2004-SESP-AppxG.pdf

Someone asked Jim Cantorie on the Weather Channel what should people do if they didn't get out before Katrina hit the Gulf shore and he said they need to get on their knees and pray because they weren't smart enough to get their families out of harm's way. Ouch!!!

 

[structuresguy]

I would like to clarify that the extra 40 mph increase for an EHPA is recommended and not required. I work in FLorida, and have designed several schools with EHPA's in them. In all cases, the school board did not want to pay the extra costs associated with the extra 40 mph wind speed increase. So we simply designed these areas for the base wind speed, with all the other EHPA design criteria. SO don't assume that becuase something is designated an EHPA, that you are any safer than a normal modern building. In fact, during last years hurricanes, many designated shelters lost their roofs, or had other structural or building envelope failures. Not ours of course, but others.

 

[structural01]

Did you convert the 2 minute sustain wind to 3 second gust?

After the conversion, can you use the same coeficients (kz, Cp, etc.) giving in ASCE 7 to get your wind pressure?

Structural01