Siting in the Hurricane Zone: a Green Building Challenge
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 08. 6.05
Thanks to an insightful question from Faith, a regular reader, we realized that TreeHuggers need information on sustainable construction methods for hurricane prone zones. It really is a critical question, with literally thousands of families still living in borrowed house trailers as a consequence of the 2004 hurricane season, many of them perhaps wondering what kind of home they could afford that will withstand this season's and future storms. What irony, too, that we TreeHuggers anguish over recycling household waste when the damage from just one Gulf Coast hurricane put millions of tons of building debris into southeastern landfills: entire communities worth of houses and their contents buried in one season. Faith wondered if earth sheltered homes would be a good solution? We wondered about the larger question of how sustainable Green Building in general is in the hurricanes zone? We're onto it and will get some posts up after a bit of research. Suggestions on good reference sites and case studies would be appreciated. In the meantime, we have more on how critical the issue is and how our readers will be affected.
Recent study suggests that while the jurry is still out as to whether climate change has any impact on hurricane frequency...looks for now like it has not changed the frequency over past eras...there is evidence that hurricane intensity and duration have been increased in the last few decades when compared to the historical record.
Most building codes in 'the zone' now require new construction to be strengthened to resist hurricane force winds. But that's a one-off approach to sustainability. The potential for the Law of Unintended Consquences to come into play is high in any one-off change. For example, do costs of the new building codes tend to exclude low income people from the best shore properties? Do the new designs require owners to consume more energy intensive building materials? What about the impact on long term energy consumption? Think about it for a while and many more difficult and unanswered questions emerge with landscaping, stormwater management, and daylighting.
Some future drivers are gaining certainty, however. Congress just approved a massive highway spending bill that is sure to upgrade the storm damaged bridges, roads, and ditches for years to come. And there's a surprise answer in the mix. If TreeHugger gave an award for best "out-of-the-box" thinking about housing, sustainabilty, and hurricanes, a research team at the University of Oklahoma would surely be nominated.
The following was excerpted from a recent EarthWatch Radio broadcast transcript:
The High Cost of 'Safe' Hurricanes, by Laura Kalinowski
"Hurricanes are less of a threat to life and limb in the United States thanks to improvements in weather forecasting technology. Today weather experts can make accurate predictions that give people time to prepare for hurricanes or get away from them. But the economic impact of hurricanes keeps going up. A recent report suggests there's a connection
between the reduction in fatalities and the increase in property damage".
"Daniel Sutter and a colleague at the University of Oklahoma study the the relationship between weather and the economy. He says accurate warnings for hurricanes have reduced the number of injuries and fatalities they inflict. Sutter says that has encouraged people to feel it's safe to live along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. He says it stands to reason that if more people move to these areas, they'll put more and more property at risk of weather-related damage..."
So to review what we've learned: improved weather forcasting saves lives but dramatically increases the solid waste generation rate in states with hurricane vulnerable coastal areas.
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
There seems to be a lot of controversy whether hurricanes are affected by climate change... and like you say the juries out-- but John, in the past 12 months alone we have even seen hurricanes do button-hook turns, come very early, and even go into the wrong hemisphere (!) the juries out (to lunch imnsho) but the facts are piling... not to mention el nino affects hurricanes-- everyone pretty much agrees on that-- yet, doesnt global warming (incl. the gulfstream being perhaps down to 25%) have something to do with el ninos frequency?? the head of NOAA's geophysical fluid dynamics once said to me a) you can use science to support any side of an argument and b) there are liars, damn liars and statisticians...
ok that's neither here nor there, i just wanted to post this link about hurricane safe buildings
==reply from JL follows -=====
Climate scientists have turned the corner on this subject. The body of evidence is now clearly signaling that intensity has increased (the amount of wind and heat in play), that duration has increased (the path length), but not that statistical ferequency has overall increased. That will take the passage of time to have a better understanding. Having more intense and long-lived hurricanes is bad enough, though. Meteorologists, incidentally, are not really scientists who investigate and publish on the subject and so far those in public contact have had little to offer except cycnicism and under the breath mumblings with the he said/she said approach. IF that ever changes then you know that denial is over.
Great link. Looking at that photo of the hurricane proof "dome home" drives home the realization that putting raised solar panels near t the coast is asking for trouble. I have my doubts about building integrated types there, such as the solar roof tiles. Not to mention any type of wind turbine. Wish I could say the coastal band along the Gulf and Southeast won't be a green building dead-zone, but thats' what it looks like; at least with this superficial treatment.
Remarkable the apparent material and energy intensity of the "dome home" design. Earth sheltered, a far less material-intense design, could handle the wind, but not the water obviously. THe question that remains is how far inland do you have to be before the effects are mitigated enough to allow green design aspects to be sustainable.
you know it's funny (in a sad ironic way, not a ha ha way) that before Andrew no one in FLA could get insurance on their domes.. now that is a very easy thing to do....
question? why do you think BIPV tiles will not be good to withstand hurricanes if they are tiled on a dome? is it cause you're considering embodied eneryg to assess the footprint?
another hurriproof shelter: yeah they may be cultish (but actually a realy groovy cult tbh way fun on their 3 republics) but just wanted to add that the earthships are hurricane proof and really comfortable (oh and low embodied energy)
ok last thing promise ;) from NCAR on hurricanes GHw and Cch
Not sure how sustainable it is, but these'll stand up to a hurricane. http://www.monolithicdome.com/
It's a small point, but one that needs to be kept in mind. South Florida, southern Louisiana, and perhaps other coastal areas (I'm less familiar with the land there) have such high, saturated water tables that there is no such thing as underground.
If there's a home here in S FL that has a basement, I'm yet to hear of it, so any design (the earthship linked above, for instance) isn't a possibility.
Not discrediting any of the above, of course. Just something to consider. The amount of waste generated by hurricanes is incredibly saddening. I wonder if there would be some way to reclaim and reuse some of the materials.
You should take a look at a new company called Canadian Rockport Homes. These concrete homes are affordable, very durable, they are designed to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. They don't rot. Once they are built they require almost no maintenance. I realize they use concrete but they use it very efficiently and are a member of the US Green Building Council.
Canadian Rockport Homes
terry earthships dont have basements
Terry-
I think what LittleCatalyst meant was that Earthships are built entirely above ground. They appear to be below ground because of mounded earth roof and walls that act as a passive energy management system.
Monolithic Domes are are more Green than traditional buildings, and will survive hurricanes, and a lot more..
From the Monolitc Dome site:
Monolithic Domes: The Ultimate "Green" Building?
DuPont's Mississippi Gulf Coast Facility Builds A Monolithic Dome Hurricane Shelter
Chemical Sensitivity and the Monolithic Dome
Planners and governmental official have failed this country miserably!
Many knowledgable scientists have been saying for decades that we were in a hurricane lull. Sound science has no effect on developers and their friends in public office.
They build, sell and move on, never to be held accountable because they 'had a permit to build' in the most hurricane prone areas in the world.
Now we have to pick up the pieces, (and find some place to through it away) and try to help those left homeless.
"I'm going to build right back were the last two hurricanes knocked down my houses. I love it here to much." Yea because someone else is picking up the tab, time and again and for mostly mansions way to near or on the beach.
Hang on to your wallets - sorry to say this is just the beginning of a very long-term and profound change in hurricane incidents.
Dominic, unfortunately earthships are not built entirely above ground. If you watch some of the making of videos you'll see that while the rammed earth tires make up the wall, they actually dig from inside the wall line to produce the fill for the tires. Sometimes as far as 6 feet. Not only does this set the home low enough to make ground water a problem, but it also causes a problem with keeping rain out of the house during the storm season. Florida gets simple thunderstorms that can dump serious amounts of water very shortly. The ground is unable to absorb the new rainfall at the rate its falling, and can create large puddles of standing water. You don't want that flowing into your home because its on a lower grade than the surrounding area.
This isn't to say that a modified earthship plan couldn't be used to produce low energy, strong buildings. Unfortunately you will probably run into a serious headache when trying to get permits for it as I'm sure FL building code doesn't currently include earthship style materials. You'll also need to find some place to gather the fill earth for the tires.
I've got an older earth sheltered design book at home with references to another domed earth project done near Ft. Lauderdale. Unfortunately none of my websearches are pulling it up right now. I'll have to see if I can find any online references to the structure later tonight. I do know that at the time the book was published (late 70s) they were being rented out.
http://www.monolithic.com/gallery/homes/index.html
The monolithic domes are built to withstand the winds and stresses of a huricane. They are also very efficient when it comes to heating and cooling. There are many articles on the site explaining the method of putting the insulation on the outside like you would a jacket. Improving the insulative properties like 10 fold.
I love the Rockport home idea - but what about shipping... Maybe I didn't search the website fully enough, but is the house "shipped" to places like Chili? What's the footprint considering that... and I'm probably going to be selling my house, and will need to purchase a piece of land and build (or refurbish) a home. My financial resources are limited - and I'd like to make it as "green" as possible in Southwest Florida. It ain't easy being green - as I've been researching (even before the recent hurricanes). The Dome House is great, but it also seems out of reach financially, and the glidehouse and others don't appear to be as structurally sound to even consider. The months of research leave me feeling a bit flat on deciding how to go with this. :-(
===== author's response follows ====
Greenbuilding has not a classic mode to adapt from. You'll have to innovate radically to handle extreme conditions. If your land is high, perhaps a recycled gigantic Airstream house trailer with frame fixed permanently to a concrete pad and facing into the prevailing wind? If vulnerable to floodwaters, mount the Airstream on a skid that can be dragged onto cable tethered pontoons when a warning comes, spread wide enough that tipping is unlikely and tethered to face the wind like a boat at anchor. Just thinking outloud about what is out of box enough to work yet permitted under existing code and affordable.