Dive Brief:

• A Texas forensic engineer, Timothy Marshall, said the aftermath of the deadly Christmas-week tornadoes in the Dallas area have revealed "rampant irresponsibleness" in construction, according to the Dallas Morning News. Marshall was part of a Weather Channel volunteer survey team inspecting damaged homes and other structures, including an elementary school, in the storm-ravaged area.
• According to Marshall, the common problem in homes, the elementary school and other buildings was the improper attachment of exterior walls to main building structures, the Morning News reported.
• Officials from the Red Oak Independent School District, in Ellis County, TX — home to the damaged school, Donald T. Shields Elementary — stated in a press release that they have contacted the engineering firm involved in the school’s construction and await their report on the damage. School officials assert that the school passed all construction inspections.

Dive Insight:

Emotions run high following a natural disaster, particularly one that takes lives and causes such extensive property damage. There is also a tendency for some to jump to conclusions and assign blame before a thorough inspection and review of the damage and facts are complete. Without a complete review of the plans, specifications, inspections and an accurate estimate of sustained winds and gust patterns, opinions — even professional ones — are just that.

From the limited photos of the damaged school in the Morning News, it appears that the exterior walls were attached to the main structure using a widely accepted method of bottom fasteners, and, contrary to the focus of the article, the top wall connections might have been the ones actually to fail. This would have caused the walls to fall and end up in the position they did. If that is the case, it is highly unlikely that even stronger fasteners used in the bottom connections would have withstood the force of those falling walls.

It’s even possible that the engineer, architects and construction professionals followed existing building codes exactly as written, which might indicate a need to revise Texas codes. It took 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, which killed more than 60 people and cost approximately $25 billion in damages, to force Florida officials to take a look at its building regulations, and the state now has one of the toughest codes in the country.