Engineering Expert Opines on Storm Damage to Commercial Property

Case Overview

This case involves damage to a small commercial property incurred during a hurricane. The Plaintiff owner of the property discovered structural damage to the property’s foundation after the storm, which had allegedly made the building dangerous to occupy, causing FEMA to order a mandatory evacuation for the property. However, and inspection performed by the Plaintiff’s insurance company allegedly revealed no such defects. The Plaintiff claimed that the insurance company was not acting in good faith to fulfill their obligation to ameliorate the expense of needed repairs.

Questions to the Engineering expert and their responses

Please briefly discuss your background in the structural engineering of commercial property.

I have provided structural engineering designs for many buildings, many located in hurricane high wind areas. I have also written engineering design guidance for high wind designs and participate in ASCE 7 minimum load standard wind load committee.

Have you completed a substantial amount of work with wind or tornado damaged properties?

I have investigated damage to maybe thousands of structures caused by high winds from both hurricanes and tornadoes, but many of these investigations were not for either the owner or an insurance company but more cursory investigations used to generally describe the damage and use the information to potentially support new engineering guidance or building code changes. I have investigated damage to many residential and commercial foundations, but I have never come across one that was damaged by high winds.

About the expert

This expert has over 40 years of engineering, construction, and consulting experience. He earned his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and a master's degree in Structural Engineering from the University of Virginia. His expertise includes building design, methods, materials, and codes, and he is experienced in hazard-related design and construction of wind- and hurricane-resistant structures. He has spent nearly 20 years finding solutions to structural engineering problems caused by natural hazards. He has managed teams that have investigated every major hurricane and flood disaster that occurred in the United States and its territories since 1995. He has investigated failures and mitigation design techniques for thousands of buildings including residential structures, schools used as shelters, hospitals, and other critical facilities.

E-054271

Specialties:

Engineering