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GAITHERSBURG, Md.—The Commerce Department’s National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today
that it has deployed the first of three teams of technical
experts under a multiorganizational partnership to perform
assessments of physical structures damaged by Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita along the nation’s Gulf Coast. The partnership—coordinated
by NIST and made up of 26 engineers from 16 separate private-sector,
academic and federal organizations—will document data
from the field on damage to major buildings, infrastructure
facilities and residential structures due to wind, wind-borne
debris, storm surge, surge-borne debris and flooding.
The damage
assessment teams also will collect damage and environmental
data from other sources, correlate damage data with environmental
data, and identify building codes and practices used in the
affected areas. Their efforts will result in a single report
from the entire partnership documenting all findings, recommendations
for any additional assessments needed of structural performance
during the hurricanes, and any immediate implications for
building practices, standards and codes.
The 16
organizations participating in the three damage assessment
teams are NIST, the Applied Technology Council, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, the Federal Highway Administration, the
International Code Council, the National Council of Structural
Engineers Associations, the National Research Council of Canada,
Texas Tech University, the University at Buffalo, the University
of Puerto Rico, Amtech Roofing Consultants Inc., Applied Residential
Engineering Services, ImageCat Inc., Scawthorn Porter Associates
Inc., Shiner Moseley and Associates Inc., and Smith &
Huston Inc.
The first
damage assessment team began a four-day tour of duty on Oct.
10 in the East Texas/West Louisiana coastal areas affected
by Hurricane Rita. The team is focusing its observation and
data collection efforts on regions where wind speed measurements
were obtained during the hurricane and where the data indicate
wind strengths that may have approached levels used in building
design.
The second
and third damage assessment teams will be deployed on Oct.
17 to the regions affected by Hurricane Katrina. These teams
will perform similar functions to the group currently assessing
damage from Hurricane Rita. One team will concentrate on the
New Orleans area while the other will focus on the Mississippi/Alabama
coastal regions.
To support
the planning and deployment of the three damage assessment
teams, NIST had already sent experts on preliminary reconnaissance
and data collection missions into the hurricane-affected areas
of Louisiana and Mississippi. A NIST roofing expert was in
the field from Sept. 6-9 to work with a roofing industry group,
followed by a team of four NIST structural engineers that
worked in the region from Sept. 26-Oct. 1. The latter group
collaborated with an assessment team headed by the Department
of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management
Agency. Additionally, two of the NIST engineers joined with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at its invitation, to collect
preliminary data on damage to the levees and other flood control
systems around New Orleans.
As a
non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s
Technology Administration, NIST develops and promotes measurement,
standards and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate
trade and improve the quality of life.
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