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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
By Randy Shackelford
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
October 2022 #14279 Page #122
Hurricane Andrew — a 30-Year-Old Learning Experience
T
his August marked the 30th anniversary of the Florida landfall of Hurricane Andrew, one of the most damaging, and influential, hurricanes ever to hit the United States. Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida with Category 5 winds early on the morning of August 24, 1992. Andrew caused damages of $25 billion in Florida, and another billion dollars’ worth when it struck Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane two days later. This image, from NASA Earth Observatory, shows Andrew on August 23, 24, and 25. Engineers tend to learn something about wind resistance from every major hurricane, and Andrew was certainly no exception. In this writer’s opinion, the main lessons of Hurricane Andrew were fourfold: (1) proper roof deck nailing, (2) testing of roof coverings for wind resistance, (3) protection of openings from wind-borne debris, and (4) proper construction of gable ends.
Roof Deck Nailing Prior to Hurricane Andrew, contractors, inspectors, and designers tended to pay more attention to the fastening at the edges of the roof decking panels, because those fasteners are the ones that determine the shear resistance of the roof diaphragm. However, in a windstorm it’s the fasteners in the interior of the panel that are the more highly stressed in withdrawal, because they’re spaced farther apart. Research conducted by APA, the Engineered Wood Association, in Andrew’s wake showed that the installation of these interior fasteners was more important than previously considered, and that if even one of these is missing or misplaced, it can affect the performance of the entire panel.
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