Wind and rainfall loss assessment for residential buildings under climate-dependent hurricane scenarios

Abstract

Abstract Residential buildings in the US coastal regions face a huge risk against hurricane hazard. The damage and loss in these structures during hurricane can be attributed to two major causes – high intensity wind and rain ingress. These two modes of hurricane losses may be impacted by climate change. Thus, this study investigates in detail the two hurricane loss modes for residential buildings in Miami-Dade County to observe how each mode contributes to the loss as well as how these losses are impacted in future climate. It is found that the hurricane loss is higher in future climate compared to present. Furthermore, the loss due to rain ingress is found to be more than the loss due to wind damage, with the difference between the two becoming even higher in future climate scenarios.