Hurricane Katrina is likely to go into the history books as the most catastrophic windstorm to strike the United States in recorded history. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to collect perishable data that will assist emergency planners and bridge officials in facing similar disasters in the future. The American Association for Wind Engineering (AAWE) is coordinating a documentation effort from research institutions with wind- and surge-related expertise across the United States in an effort to collect perishable data by acknowledged experts. Currently teams from Louisiana, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Colorado, Iowa and New York are participating in this AAWE coordinated effort. This award supports the data collection effort conducted by a team of faculty and graduate students from Louisiana State University (LSU). The focus of LSU's effort will be on two of the most catastrophic and unique aspects of this storm: (1) the terrible loss of life due to storm surge, and (2) the damage and destruction of numerous short- and medium-span bridges due to surge and waves. The first task concerns collection of perishable data about flood casualties. Previous research has documented a strong relationship between fatality rates and depth of flooding, but the effects of other variables are less well understood. Detailed data will be collected about the conditions surrounding fatalities, including: (1) location (GPS coordinates); (2) depth of water; (3) where the fatality occurred, e.g., building, car, in open space; (4) building type, elevation, number of stories, and damage sustained (if fatality occurred in a building); and (5) demographic data. The collected data is vital to flood fatality model development and validation. Such models are valuable to emergency managers and disaster public health officials to aid in disaster planning, design of mitigation measures, search and rescue operations, and recovery operations. The second task in this award will be concerned with collecting bridge damage data. It will focus on short- and medium-span bridges that have performed poorly during Hurricane Katrina and last year during Hurricane Ivan. Many unanchored, or poorly anchored, simply supported spans were lost due to unseating. These failures will be surveyed to collect data on: (1) failure modes (e.g., anchor failure, pile-to-cap connection, pile failure, other modes); (2) scour; (3) corrosion; (4) high water mark elevations; and (5) bridge railing type (solid/open). The collected bridge data will be used to develop design solutions for new construction of coastal bridges and rehabilitation of existing coastal bridges to avoid the occurrence of similar tragedies. Collected data from both tasks will be assembled into a report along with results from other AAWE partner investigations, which will be the subject of a one-day workshop held in Washington, DC, with financial and administrative support from the American Society of Civil Engineers' Structural Engineering Institute. This forum will transfer critical knowledge on infrastructure performance during Hurricane Katrina and provide an informed input to government and industry decision-making bodies.
