RAPID: Assessing the Performance of Elevated Wood Buildings, including Manufactured Housing, in Florida during 2018 Hurricane Michael

Hurricane Michael made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on October 10, 2018. This hurricane was the strongest to hit the continental United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The observed impact of Hurricane Michael presents a unique and important opportunity to investigate the wind performance of building structures given that recorded wind speeds reached and exceeded design winds at the coast and further inland.
Following landfall, this Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant performed door-to-door (D2D) assessments to investigate the wind performance of elevated site-built and manufactured housing. The RAPID reconnaissance was performed October 20-23, 2018 in the Florida Panhandle, spanning coastal and inland areas to survey damage caused by a range of peak and sustained wind speeds. In total 233 structures were surveyed, including 69 site-built and 164 manufactured homes.
Florida has one of the largest inventories in the United States of manufactured housing, the most vulnerable residential structure to hurricanes, which also often houses the most socially vulnerable households. While damage to manufactured housing has been widely noticed following major hurricane events, this type of structure has received minimal research attention. Manufactured housing is a subset of elevated housing, where elevated site-built homes are also very common in the areas impacted by Hurricane Michael. The influence that the elevation height, stilt distribution, and foundation type have on wind loading and damage experienced by elevated site-built and manufactured housing structures is presently unknown. This RAPID project provides necessary post-disaster data needed to investigate these fundamental gaps in knowledge.