Windstorm impact reduction

News and Updates

AI Could Set a New Bar for Designing Hurricane-Resistant Buildings

March 29, 2023

Determining the right level of winds to design for is tricky business, but support from artificial intelligence may offer a simple solution.

Building that has been destroyed by a tornado

NIST, NSF Award More Than $7.6 Million to Support Disaster Resilience Research

May 4, 2022

The agencies are funding 20 projects to be conducted across 24 institutions through the Disaster Resilience Research Grant (DRRG) program, which they manage

Major New Building Standard Can Map Out Tornado Threat for the First Time

June 21, 2021

Of the natural hazards in Mother Nature’s arsenal, tornadoes are some of the most vicious. But while other hazards are regularly considered in building designs

Projects and Programs

Community Resilience Program

Ongoing

Community resilience has emerged as a way to reduce the direct and indirect costs due to natural, technological, and human-caused hazard events. There continues

National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program Coordination

Ongoing

This is an annually renewed project that supports NIST's Lead Agency coordination of National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP) research and

Worker looks over the disaster site at New York City's World Trade Center

Structural Performance for Multi-hazards Program

Ongoing

This program addresses the gap between basic research and building codes, standards, and practice through measurement science research to: (1) predict

Assessment of Available Collapse Simulation Methods for Use in Performance-Based Seismic Engineering Project

Completed

While it is a key aspect of structural analyses that support current Performance-Based Seismic Engineering (PBSE), "structural collapse" is not clearly defined

Publications

Improving Windstorm and Tornado Resilience: Recommendations for One- and Two-Family Residential Structures

February 21, 2023

Author(s)

Brian O'Connor, Karah Osburn, Jennifer Mitchell, Heidi Szabo, Marc Levitan

The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide a brief overview of building envelope considerations and load path improvements to reduce damages to wood framed

Design Guide for New Tornado Load Requirements in ASCE 7-22

January 30, 2023

Author(s)

Erik Perfetto, James Taylor, Karah Osburn, Brian O'Connor, Marc Levitan, Jennifer Mitchell

This instructional guidance is for design professionals and building officials to help them determine when a building or other structure is required to be

Development and Analysis of a Database of Tornado Impacts on U.S. Critical Facilities

May 17, 2022

Author(s)

Nicholas de Toledo, Marc Levitan, Jamil Malik, Warren Stewart, Katherine Johnson, Patrick Crawford

Despite the significant hazard that tornadoes pose, much remains to be learned about the impacts of tornadoes on critical facilities in the United States. While

Economic Analysis of ASCE 7-22 Tornado Load Requirements

March 30, 2022

Author(s)

Joshua D. Kneifel, Marc Levitan, Blake Haney, Benchmark Harris, Thomas Smith, David Butry, Patrick Crawford, Nicholas de Toledo, Douglas Thomas

Awards

Marc Levitan Receives the National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA) Kiesling Award

Presented this year to Marc Levitan of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), recently the (Acting) Director fo the

Marc Levitan Receives Top 25 Newsmakers of 2021 - Award of Excellence

For his successful efforts getting the first-ever requirements for tornado-resistant design adopted in the 2022 version of ASCE 7