Expert: Trailer Parks Were Charley's Plaything
By Mark E. Ruquet
NU Online News Service, Aug. 20, 9:54 a.m. EDT?The destructive wrath of Hurricane Charley was diminished somewhat by improvements in construction that followed Hurricane Andrew, according to a damage projection expert.[@@]
Atul Khanduri, manager of wind risk modeling for AIR Worldwide Corp., in Boston, gave that assessment after four days of researching Hurricane Charley damage for future modeling use .
According to the modeling company, insured damage estimates range between $6 billion and $10 billion, which could make it the second most expensive storm on record, equaling or exceeding Hurricane Hugo, but not coming close to the more than $20 billion in insured losses from Andrew in 1992.
Mr. Khanduri said it was apparent that the construction lessons learned from Andrew helped reduce the destruction left behind by Charley, but the nature of the storm still left a tremendous amount of damage in its wake.
He said Charley was unique in its speed and width. The radius of maximum winds was roughly six to nine miles at landfall, moving at more than 30 mph with sustained winds of 140 mph when it hit Charlotte Counties, the storm took its path of destruction 150 miles inland to Orlando. Normally, Mr. Khanduri noted, hurricane winds begin to diminish as they move inland, but apparently this storm kept its strength as it moved far from the coast.
As projected by the modelers, mobile homes did not survive, with complete and total damage to mobile park homes.
"Blocks of these homes were decimated," noted Mr. Khanduri. "And those without tie downs fared the worst. I've never seen damage this bad before."
He said buildings with roofs of wood frame construction, or tin, fared the worst, as the storm tore these structures apart.
The buildings that fared the best were high rise buildings because of their reinforced concrete and steel construction.
Homes constructed of good quality roofs, either high-rated shingles or reinforced tiles, also fared well, he noted.
He said without the lessons and improvements made after Andrew, there would have been more damage from Charley, but not significantly more.
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