When Can We Talk about the Successes? Perspectives on the Impacts of Hurricane Dorian to Buildings and Infrastructure in the Bahamas

During and following major weather disasters, much of the focus is on the failures that occurred

to the built and natural environments. However, while there is understandably a need to focus on

the destruction (e.g., in order to provide empathy to those who suffered, and to increase

participation in response and recovery efforts), there are often notable successes that are also

present but too often ignored, which can provide vital lessons on the value of resilience and

hurricane damage mitigation efforts. This talk provides perspectives on successes and failures

observed in buildings and infrastructure after Hurricane Dorian by the Structural Extreme Events

Reconnaissance (StEER) network, an NSF-funded, community-driven network dedicated to

advancing resilience through post-disaster reconnaissance. While specific engineering lessons

will be shared, the objective of this talk is to bring awareness to the disaster community,

including the weather enterprise, of the successes and the reasons for them, and engage the

community in acknowledging and highlighting such successes in future events.

Hurricane Dorian impacted the northwest Bahamas with hurricane force conditions, at times

record-breaking conditions, for almost 36 hours over a period between

September 1-3, 2019. Sustained winds reached approximately 290 km/hr as it first made landfall on Elbow Cay with a

central pressure of 915 MB and storm surge estimated as high as 7 meters above normal tide

levels. Dorian sustained its intensity as it moved slowly through Great Abaco and eastern Grand

Bahamas, before weakening slightly as it stalled just north of Grand Bahama. Dorian finally

moved northwest towards the east coast of the US on September 3, 2019, causing major flooding

and some wind damage as it moved just offshore of the east coast. The prolonged exposure to

extreme hazards associated with Dorian presented a true worst-case scenario for the island

communities in Great Abaco, Grand Bahama and the surrounding cays.

StEER engaged in a multi-pronged reconnaissance effort immediately following landfall,

including (1) virtual assessments resulting in the publication of a Preliminary Virtual

Reconnaissance Report (PVRR); (2) deployment of two Field Assessment Structural Teams

(FAST) to document first-hand observations across a gradient of wind speeds, storm surge

intensities, and building typologies in the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama; and (3) curation and

publication of the resulting datasets and engineering reports for open use through the National

Science Foundation DesignSafe cyberinfrastructure. The FAST deployments were conducted

between September 24-25, 2019, and between October 4-8, 2019, utilizing a mixture of

Streetview imaging, door-to-door forensic assessments, and lidar to document building and

infrastructure performance, and estimate hazard intensities. The team observed a number of

buildings that performed well structurally, including a significant number, in areas subjected to

the greatest hazards, that had no observable exterior damage. Successes and failures will be

contrasted, with discussion of the major causal factors that led to the disparity in performance.

The engineering lessons are contextualized within a broader discussion of the unique socio-

economic challenges driving the need for resiliency in island nations.