
NOAA Begins Posting Hurricane Michael Damage Assessment Imagery - infodocket
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/oct18/michael-storm-imagery.html
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escherplex
It's interesting to view before/after images of Mexico Beach Florida. Appears
a particular house at the end of 36th street survived relatively unscathed yet
the surrounding homes were demolished. An old googlemaps street view of the
area suggests that the bulk of homes were of frame construction. Yet this
particular one looks to be of solid concrete block construction. The same
sorts of results were visible after hurricane Charlie struck SW Florida in
2004. Concrete block houses survived with some roof damage (particularly those
with _Howard Johnson_ style orange curved roof tiles) but frame houses were
demolished. This would be time for an enforced, no exemptions, building code
change.

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Amezarak
The real problem is the storm surge. The frame or concrete surviving doesn't
matter much if you have to tear it all down anyway, because water ruins
everything.

Wood frame houses can absolutely be built to withstand wind damage. The
problem depicted in these pictures is mostly storm surge.

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eigenstuff
The problem with hurricanes is USUALLY storm surge, but Hurricane Michael hit
Mexico Beach with 150 mph sustained winds, effectively making it a very large
EF3 tornado. NOAA predicted that wind would be the biggest problem, and if you
watch any footage from Hurricane Michael, that's pretty much all it is with a
side of storm surge.

What also happened is that this is not an area usually hit by hurricanes, so a
lot of the structures were built mid-century and hadn't been put through the
cycle of hurricane, rebuild, hurricane, rebuild that much of Florida has so
lack of buildings up to the ol' post-Andrew code level is also a LOT of the
problem.

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craftyguy
> What also happened is that this is not an area usually hit by hurricanes

Having grown up on the Gulf coast, it's still mind blowing that many folks
living on the Gulf coast still think they are immune to hurricanes if it has
been several decades (e.g. 40yrs) since there was a direct hit in that area.
The entire Gulf coast should have building standards to prepare for the
inevitable.

