Bourdeau, a hazard performance analyst for FEMA, was sent to Oklahoma after tornadoes tore through May 24, destroying some 600 homes and pummeling the Piedmont area especially hard. He'll be here through October, he said, both studying what led to such high levels of destruction as well as what can be done to make homes safer.
Bourdeau, who works out of a regional FEMA office in Texas, is from South Carolina, where building codes along the hurricane-prone coastal areas require structures to withstand 120-mph, three-second gusts.
“Pretty tough design,” he said, “and that, of course, has all been tested.”
McCarty's project is designed to those standards, even though Oklahoma code requirements are lower, mandating structures to stand up to 90-mph winds.
Bourdeau said he'd prefer using the more rigorous standards in all parts of the country.
“It just makes for a stronger structure,” he said.
But the goal is to educate, not mandate.
