An Assessment and Analysis of Hurricane Damage in Ortley Beach, New Jersey

Abstract

In October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States in one of the most damaging storm events in the nation’s history. One of the communities that was impacted the most was Ortley Beach, New Jersey, which was rendered virtually unrecognizable by the storm. There are many factors which may contribute to or have an effect on the amount of damage sustained by a structure during a hurricane event, and an identification and analysis of these parameters would prove useful in predicting and preventing damage to such structures in the future. This thesis, using the information gathered by a damage assessment team in the aftermath of the storm, makes an assessment and analysis of the damage in Ortley Beach following Hurricane Sandy. Existing methods of damage evaluation are reviewed, and then a damage assessment approach is outlined. A damage assessment sheet was made that was used by the members of the damage survey team. A survey of major structural damages trends with regards to severe weather is conducted, and then, using both data and photographs that were collected by the team on-site, damage to the structures is classified and quantified. Three major damage estimations were made: one consists of an estimation of damage of an entire structure, another is based on the weighted sum of the damage level of each story of a structure, and the final one employs construction cost data and damage evaluations of the components of each structure to determine a loss ratio that describes the percentage of the structure that was damaged in terms of monetary value. An examination of the relationships between the damage levels and various parameters reveals that damage to structures in Ortley Beach was primarily determined by the distance of the structure to the ocean, but the elevation of the front door of the home also significantly impacted the amount of damage sustained, with the year of construction of the structure perhaps playing a minor role as well. A linear regression analysis reveals that although there is not a significant linear correlation between the major parameters and the damage levels, the distance of each house to the water plays a more significant role in determining damage than does the row from the ocean in which the home is situated. The data recorded in this study has variety of applications towards the development of better damage prediction models and more rapid assessment methods, and may perhaps be used to suggest alternative building practices in coastal regions.