Tomlinson: Texas can be more resilient to disaster, it’s a choice
Boarded up windows on the Enterprise Plaza building’s blown out windows downtown on May 22, 2024, in Houston.
A corner office of a building with a blown out window downtown on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Houston.
A man takes a photo of damaged windows along the side of Wells Fargo Plaza, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Houston.
Damaged and discarded books lie in a parking lot outside of the damaged BookNook store in Rockport, TX, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. Rockport took a direct hit from Hurricane Harvey on August 25, 2017.
Windows at the Jennie Sealy Hospital in Galveston can withstand a 9-pound, 8-foot-long piece of 2x4 lumber flying at 54 miles per hour.
Small gravel picked up by last May’s 100-mph derecho shattered hundreds of windows in downtown Houston skyscrapers. The skyscrapers were built under a different building code based on a different climate and by developers focused on keeping costs low.
Constructing a building or home capable of withstanding a natural disaster is not impossible; it’s a choice. The fundamental problem is who pays for resilience and who benefits.
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Developers built much of Houston’s downtown under old building codes with the expectation of handing them off to new owners who would have to deal with any damage. Unless building codes require extra strength or the ultimate owner demands higher standards, developers will save every dollar possible to boost profits.
By comparison, the University of Texas Medical Branch built the Jennie Sealy Hospital following 2008’s........
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