Field Assessment Structural Team (FAST-1) Dataset, in StEER - 2024 Houston Derecho

In the evening of May 16, 2024, severe storms developing in southeast Texas evolved into a derecho that moved into the greater Houston area. The derecho was accompanied by heavy rainfall and two confirmed EF-1 tornadoes in Texas. Nearly one million people lost electricity and over 120 schools in the Houston Independent School District reported loss of power. The City of Houston estimated that nearly 1.5 billion cubic yards of residential storm debris from fallen trees was created.

StEER activated a special hybrid response to evaluate this event. This response combined elements of StEER’s Level 1 and Level 2 protocols, leveraging a small University of Houston-based Field Assessment Structural Team (FAST) to gather field observations and combining its insights with other publicly available data compiled by a small Virtual Assessment Structural Team. The Fulcrum App was utilized to record and document geotagged data (photos, videos, and audio recordings) via smartphone devices. UAVs were deployed to record damage of multiple residential low-rise structures in northwest Houston that were not visible from the ground. Despite access restrictions due to safety and security concerns, limited-time permission was secured, enabling the capture of images of the damaged high-rise buildings in downtown Houston. In general, the FAST observed extensive damage to power lines, structural and non-structural damage to low-rise residential structures caused by direct wind action and falling trees in northwest Houston, and glass facade damage to mid-to-high-rise buildings in downtown Houston. Damage to natural landscape was also recorded as it was a major source of damage to roof systems of low-rise buildings. Following the reconnaissance effort, a team of data librarians was assembled across multiple universities to execute StEER’s Data Enrichment and Quality Control (DEQC) process on the performance assessments and hazard indicators collected by the FAST.

This project encompasses the products of StEER's Level 1 and Level 2 response to this event: a joint Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR) - Early Access Reconnaissance Report (EARR) with corresponding Media Repository, and the Curated Dataset collected by the FAST.