Concrete House
Stands up to Katrina

Pass Christian, MS - The Sundbergs had been building their fully-mitigated home for eight years, and it was 85 percent complete, when Hurricane Katrina slammed into their area on August 29, 2005, with a huge storm surge and reported sustained winds of 125 mph. The water reached an elevation of 28 feet. The winds died down and the water retreated to the Gulf of Mexico, revealing that the Sundbergs’ home had survived the storm.

“This is where our heart is,” said Scott Sundberg. When building his home, called “Shadowlawn,” he utilized his experience with structural physics and design. When they recover from the latest storm, Scott and his wife Caroline will be re-energized in an effort to finish building their home before the next one strikes.

Before breaking ground, Sundberg did his homework. He studied the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for his community to locate where his property is in the flood zone. He studied Florida Building Codes and the storm history of the area, and visited abandoned home sites where scars of Hurricane Camille were visible. The information from Sundberg’s research motivated them to build their home to withstand severe storms.

The Sundbergs’ house has spread footings, with concrete members to distribute the load to the soil, and a 4-foot-high beam- wall and a beam-wall down the center. There is connectivity through the house from the roof down to the third floor, on to the second floor, and then to the carport. The house is also built to ‘perform elastically’ and to withstand winds of between180 and 200 mph. The bottom of the beam of the first floor living space is 25.4 feet above sea level.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, the Sundbergs’ home was still under construction. The windows that were installed were vinyl gliders which are not hurricane resistant. The few windows that blew out will be replaced and hurricane shutters installed as planned, adding another safety measure to the home.

Sundberg stated that “as compliance increases, damage is less.” He is following the improved codes put into place in the mid-1990s in Florida following Hurricane Andrew’s damage to the Homestead area in 1992.

When they visited their new home after Katrina, Sundberg looked for cracking, spawling, and displacement. He was relieved to find no signs that the structural integrity of the home was compromised. “Using concrete adds about 10 to 15 percent above the cost of conventional construction,” stated Sundberg. In this case, it proved to be a wise investment since using conventional methods of building may have led to greater losses.