Even as the push to require safe rooms across a wide variety of buildings faltered, engineers were working on a more ambitious goal: to change the way buildings are designed and constructed in hurricane zones, in order to survive all but the deadliest storms.
Designing a structure to withstand hurricane winds requires two basic steps, according to Don Scott, who helped develop flexible hurricane building standards for the American Society of Civil Engineers. First, the roof is attached tightly to the walls, and mainly to the walls, in order to transfer pressure from the cyclone down to the strongest part of the building.
Second, windows and other openings must be strong enough to survive debris, such as tree limbs, falling into the air at high speeds during a hurricane. If a window breaks, Mr. Scott said, wind pressure from the hurricane is forced into the building, “like blowing up a balloon.” He said covering windows with a special glaze can prevent them from cracking, similar to Florida’s hurricane-proof windows.
Scott and colleagues in the civil engineering community set out to convert the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Joplin Report into building requirements for incorporation into the next version of the Model Building Code in 2024.
Here, too, the construction industry has successfully scaled back those goals.
Mr. Scott said the robust design standards and impact-resistant windows work with any type of structure. But when the engineering community began its work, Mr. Scott said he received a warning from Gary Ehrlich, head of standards at the National Association of Home Builders: If Mr. Scott’s group recommends applying these standards to homes, the recommendations will never get in the model codes.
Ms Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Home Builders Group, declined to make Mr. Ehrlich available for comment.