Infrastructure protectionNIST: Joplin tornado highlights need for building design, construction standards

Nationally accepted standards for building design and construction, public shelters, and emergency communications can significantly reduce deaths and the steep economic costs of property damage caused by tornadoes. That is the key conclusion of a two-year technical investigation by the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) into the impacts of the 22 May 2011 tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri.

The recommendations are featured in a draft report issued for public comment today and announced at a press briefing held at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. A NIST release reports that the NIST study is the first to scientifically assess the impact of a tornado in four major categories: tornado characteristics, building performance, human behavior and emergency communication — and the impact of each on life-safety, the ability to protect people from injury or death. It also is the first to recommend that standards and model codes be developed and adopted for designing buildings to better resist tornadoes.

Following the public comment period, NIST will issue a final report and then work with the appropriate code development organizations to use the study’s recommendations to improve model building codes and lay the foundation for nationally accepted standards. NIST says it also will work with organizations representing state and local governments — including building officials — to encourage them to seriously consider implementing its recommendations.

“The overarching conclusion of our two-year study is that death and destruction from tornadoes can be reduced,” said Eric Letvin, director of disaster and failure studies for NIST. “Based on a significant body of research and observations from such events, our scientific understanding of tornadoes and their effects has matured substantially. It’s time to begin developing and implementing standards and codes that directly address tornado hazards.”

For the study, NIST scientists (to the extent possible) reconstructed the characteristics of the tornado and its impact on the built environment (including designated safe areas and lifelines such as power and water transmission systems), the emergency communications prior to and during the event, and the responses and outcomes of people who found themselves in the tornado’s path.