Media reporting of HAZUS-MH damage estimates ...

HAZUS.org is getting calls and emails from media sources asking about HAZUS-MH generated damage estimates for Hurricane IKE.

HAZUS.org cautions that HAZUS-MH hurricane loss and damage estimates can vary dramatically depending on the accuracy of the input data and the experience of the operator. HAZUS-MH is a sophisticated software system that is intended to be used in the disaster management community.

The following is taken from the FEMA HAZUS web site...

HAZUS-MH loss estimates can include:

• Physical damage to residential and commercial buildings, schools, critical facilities, and infrastructure;
  
• Economic loss, including lost jobs, business interruptions, repair and reconstruction costs; and
  
• Social impacts, including estimates of shelter requirements, displaced households, and population exposed to scenario floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.

The HAZUS-MH MR3 Hurricane Wind Model allows users in the Atlantic and Gulf Coast regions and Hawaii to estimate hurricane winds and potential damage and loss to residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. It also estimates direct economic loss, post-storm shelter needs, and building and tree debris quantities and allows assessment of specific structural changes to buildings to strengthen them for mitigation. The model has the capability to define hurricane scenarios using National Weather Service forecasts/advisories and the software is optimized for rapid loss assessment. New MR3 features for the Hurricane Model include mitigation analysis options for all of the building classes and thousands of new damage and loss functions in the database. Tree debris can be estimated by weight or volume likely to be collected and disposed of using public funds. An "Automatic Outputs" tool added to the Hurricane Analysis Options dialog allows users to specify a standard set of results that will be automatically generated after each scenario or probabilistic analysis. A new rapid loss feature has been added that generates a range of potential damage and loss estimates for a given hurricane forecast that are included in the rapid loss summary report. Details about the Hurricane Wind Model.