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National Institute of Standards and Technology

National Construction Safety Team Act

Annual Report

Fiscal Year (FY) 2018

Summary

This annual report to Congress for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 is required by the National Construction

Safety Team (NCST) Act (Public Law 107-231). The National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST) undertook a new NCST investigation in FY 2018.

In FY 2018, NIST deployed preliminary reconnaissance teams to California and Puerto Rico, in 

response to the Tubbs Fire and Hurricane Maria, respectively. Based on the recommendations of 

the preliminary reconnaissance team and evaluation of the criteria listed in the regulations 

implementing the NCST Act, specifically in 15 CFR 270.102, on February 21, 2018, the NIST

Director established a team to perform a technical investigation of the 2017 Hurricane Maria and 

its impacts on Puerto Rico. The goals of this investigation are to characterize: (1) the wind 

environment and technical conditions associated with deaths and injuries; (2) the performance of 

representative critical buildings, and designated safe areas in those buildings, including their 

dependence on local lifelines; and (3) the performance of emergency communications systems and 

the public’s response to such communications.

NIST is continuing to implement the recommendations to develop consensus standards and code 

provisions related to progressive collapse from the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation 

of the World Trade Center Disaster (WTC Investigation)1 and the Technical Investigation of the 

May 22, 2011, Tornado in Joplin, Missouri (NCST Joplin Investigation)2

. 

Highlights of FY 2018 activities include:

• NIST Director established an NCST with eleven members—ten NIST employees and one 

team member from the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health 

(NCDMPH)—to study building performance and emergency response and evacuation 

during Hurricane Maria;

• NIST and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) made significant progress on 

the development of tornado hazards maps, as part of the recommendations from the NCST 

Joplin investigation;

• NIST made significant progress on guidance of public alerts and warnings, as part of the 

recommendations from the NCST Joplin investigation;

• NIST and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) collaborated on the 

submission of 10 proposals for the ICC 500-2020 Standard for the Design and 

Construction of Storm Shelters, as part of the recommendations from the NCST Joplin 

investigation; and

• NIST contributed to revisions of the draft consensus standard for disproportionate collapse 

mitigation of building structures in response to votes and comments from the first ballot.

 1 Report available at: http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=909017 2 Report available at: http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=915628
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Additionally, NIST held three meetings3 of the NCST Advisory Committee (NCSTAC) during FY 

2018. Two of the meetings were held via web conference on February 20, 2018, and May 16, 

2018, and one was held in person at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD, on August 30, 2018. In these

meetings, NIST briefed the NCSTAC on: 

• progress of NIST implementation of the NCST Joplin Investigation recommendations;

• disaster and failure events scored using the preliminary reconnaissance screening criteria;

• preliminary deployment activities for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and the 2017 

Northern California wildfires;

• the team establishment and goals of the Technical Investigation of the Building 

Performance and Emergency Response and Evacuation During Hurricane Maria (Puerto 

Rico) (NCST Hurricane Maria Investigation); and

• progress on the NCST Investigation of Hurricane Maria’s Effects on Puerto Rico.

A summary of the discussions at these meetings may be found in the FY 2018 Annual Report of 

the NCSTAC to Congress.

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Introduction

In October 2002, the NCST Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush and authorized

the Director of NIST to establish and deploy teams to investigate events leading to failure of a

building or buildings that result in substantial loss of life or that pose significant potential for

substantial loss of life.

The purpose of these investigations is to improve the safety and structural integrity of buildings in 

the United States. A team shall:

1. Establish the likely technical cause or causes of building failure;

2. Evaluate the technical aspects of evacuation and emergency response procedures;

3. Recommend as necessary, specific improvements to building standards, codes, and 

practices based on the findings made pursuant to (1) and (2); and,

4. Recommend any research and other appropriate actions needed to improve the structural 

safety of buildings, and improve the evacuation and emergency response procedures, based 

on the findings and recommendations of the investigation.

Under Section 10 of the NCST Act, NIST is to provide an annual report to the House Committee

on Science, Space, and Technology and to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Transportation each year. This report is to include:

1. A summary of the investigations conducted by teams during the prior fiscal year;

2. A summary of recommendations made by the teams in reports issued under Section 8 of 

the NCST Act during the prior fiscal year and a description of the extent to which those 

recommendations have been implemented; and

 3 Meeting summaries available at: https://www.nist.gov/topics/disaster-failure-studies/national-construction-safetyteam-ncst/advisory-committee-meetings 4 FY 2018 NCSTAC Report to Congress available at:

https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2019/02/04/ncstac_2018_report_to_congress.pdf 
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3. A description of the actions taken to improve building safety and structural integrity by the 

NIST during the prior fiscal year in response to reports issued under Section 8 of the NCST 

Act.

This report summarizes NIST’s activities under the NCST Act for FY 2018 as required by Section 

10 of the Act. 

1. Investigations Conducted Under the NCST Act during FY 2018

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a strong Category 4 

storm, causing fatalities, injuries, and damage to buildings and infrastructure. NIST sent a 

preliminary reconnaissance team on December 10-15, 2017 to collect information and data to 

be used to determine whether further NIST study should be conducted. Based on the 

recommendations of the preliminary reconnaissance team and evaluation of the criteria listed 

in the NCST Act and its implementing regulations, the NIST Director established a team under 

the NCST Act to conduct a technical study of the building performance and emergency response 

and evacuation during Hurricane Maria. The goals of the NCST Hurricane Maria Investigation 

are to characterize: (1) the wind environment and technical conditions associated with deaths 

and injuries; (2) the performance of representative critical buildings, and designated safe areas 

in those buildings, including their dependence on lifelines; and (3) the performance of 

emergency communications systems and the public’s response to such communications. 

The recommendation to establish a team was based on analysis of the event against the criteria 

found in the NCST Act and its implementing regulations (15 C.F.R. Part 270) for establishing 

a team under the NCST Act and firsthand observations in Puerto Rico made by the NIST 

preliminary reconnaissance team. The NCST Act and its implementing regulations (15 CFR 

270.102) set forth the criteria the Director must use in determining whether to establish and 

deploy a team “after an event that caused the failure of a building or buildings that resulted in 

substantial loss of life or posed significant potential for substantial loss of life.” The hurricane 

that made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, caused the failure of buildings that 

resulted in substantial loss of life. 

The criteria considered and associated analysis of the event against each criterion are set forth 

below.

Criterion 1:

The event was any of the following:

(i) A major failure of one or more buildings or types of buildings due to an extreme natural 

event (earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood, etc.);

(ii) A fire that resulted in a building failure of the building of origin and/or spread beyond the 

building of origin;

(iii) A major building failure at significantly less than its design basis, during construction, or 

while in active use; or

(iv) An act of terrorism or other event resulting in a Presidential declaration of disaster and 

activation of the National Response Plan. 

Analysis: The September 20, 2017, storm event in Puerto Rico falls within category (i). The 

hurricane resulted in the failures of many buildings, including metal buildings, and building 

envelopes and nonstructural systems in engineered buildings that house essential services. The 
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failures of these buildings resulted in at least 64 deaths, a substantial loss of life.

Criterion 2:

A fact-finding investigation of the building performance and emergency response and 

evacuation procedures will likely result in significant and new knowledge or building code 

revision recommendations needed to reduce or mitigate public risk and economic losses from 

future building failures.

Analysis: The hurricane produced rare near-design wind loads for engineered buildings and 

other structures across a large geographical area with a heterogeneous building stock. The 

event provides a unique opportunity to assess the effectiveness of performance objectives set 

forth by current design standards for critical and other building types and test emergency 

communications standards and practice in an environment that experienced widespread and 

long-lasting infrastructure failures. We, therefore, expect that an investigation of the building 

performance during and after the storm and of the challenges in emergency response and 

evacuation procedures will likely result in novel insights that will lead to important 

recommendations for codes, standards, and practices. 

In performing the analyses set forth above, the following factors listed in 15 CFR 270.102(b) 

were also considered:

(a) Whether sufficient financial and personnel resources are available to conduct an 

investigation — The estimated costs of the recommended investigation were within 

NIST’s fiscal year (FY) 2018 budget and NIST’s requested FY 2019 budget. The

NCST Act requires that the team be comprised of NIST employees and at least one 

individual from outside. NIST had sufficient funding within its FY 2018 budget 

and its FY 2019 requested budget to support the non-NIST team member if 

required. NIST determined that the employees expected to be drawn from multiple 

divisions within NIST Engineering Laboratory (EL) were sufficient and available to 

conduct the investigation. 

(b) Whether an investigation of the building failure warrants the advanced capabilities 

and experiences of a team — The investigation of the building failures caused by 

Hurricane Maria warrants the advanced capabilities and experiences of the members 

of the team to determine the characteristics of the storm hazards; the pattern, 

location, and cause of injuries and fatalities, and how they were affected by the 

emergency communications and public response; and the performance of 

representative critical buildings, and designated safe areas in those buildings, 

including their dependence on lifelines. In the establishment of the NCST, the 

NIST Director appointed a team with the broad combined expertise (in structural 

engineering, social science, complex dynamical systems, and risk modeling of NIST 

team members, and in epidemiology and hazard modeling of non-NIST team 

members) required to accomplish the investigation objectives.

(c) If the technical cause of the failure is readily apparent, whether an investigation is 

likely to result in relevant knowledge other than reaffirmation of the technical cause 

— although some causes of building failures are readily apparent, the investigation 

is likely to result in knowledge with potential for new recommendations for changes 
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to codes, standards, and practices. Use of current national standards, codes, and 

practices may not result in “immediate occupancy” and continued functionality of 

critical buildings (e.g., hospitals, shelters, and emergency response facilities) and 

other structures. The term “immediate occupancy”, or IO, implies that a building is 

immediately safe to occupy after a hazard event.5

(d) Whether deployment of a team will substantially duplicate local or state resources 

equal in investigatory and analytical capability and quality to a team — There were 

no known local or State resources equal to NIST in investigatory and analytical 

capability nor current or planned investigations addressing the specific scope of the 

recommended NIST investigation of the Hurricane Maria event.

(e) Recommendations resulting from a preliminary reconnaissance of the site of the 

building failure — Based on the assessment of the preliminary reconnaissance team 

of the sites of building failures, the Director of the Engineering Laboratory 

recommended to the NIST Director the additional study of the event to determine: 

(1) the wind environment and technical conditions associated with deaths and 

injuries; (2) the performance of representative critical buildings, and designated 

safe areas in those buildings, including their dependence on lifelines; and (3) the 

performance of emergency communications systems and the public’s response to 

such communications.

The NIST Director, therefore, appointed the following individuals to the NCST for conducting 

a technical investigation of the effects of Hurricane Maria:

Dr. Erica Kuligowski, Lead Technical Investigator

Affiliation: Research Social Scientist, Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Group, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: human behavior in emergencies, including preparedness, 

response and recovery behaviors, emergency communications, community resilience, 

behavioral modeling, and the modeling of social systems.

Dr. Joseph Main, Associate Lead Technical Investigator

Affiliation: Research Structural Engineer, Structures Group, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: wind loads on structures, and computational assessment 

of structural performance under extreme loads, including modeling the response of 

structural systems beyond local failure to global collapse.

Mr. Benjamin Davis, Team Member

Affiliation: Management and Program Analyst, Disaster and Failure Studies Program, 

EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: project management and contract support.

Dr. Maria Dillard, Team Member

Affiliation: Research Social Scientist, Community Resilience Group, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: community response to hazards and chronic stressors, 

 5 https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.1224.pdf
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methods for measurement and modeling community resilience, sampling and surveying 

expertise.

Dr. Jazalyn Dukes, Team Member

Affiliation: Research Structural Engineer, Earthquake Engineering Group, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: earthquake engineering, seismic retrofits of existing 

buildings and infrastructure, damage assessment and modeling.

Dr. Kenneth Harrison, Team Member

Affiliation: Operations Research Analyst, Community Resilience Group, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: decision-making under uncertainty, infrastructure 

modeling, interdependencies of distributed infrastructure and building functions, 

systems analysis.

Dr. Jennifer Helgeson, Team Member

Affiliation: Applied Economics Office, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: resilience to hazards in the built environment, with 

consideration for cost-effectiveness of community-scale mitigation and adaptation 

efforts, sampling and surveying expertise.

Dr. Marc Levitan, Team Member

Affiliation: Research Structural Engineer, Structures Group, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: standards for the instrumentation and its deployment to 

measure wind, structural response to severe wind loading, development of wind 

standards, model codes, and better building practices.

Dr. Judith Mitrani-Reiser, Team Member

Affiliation: Disaster & Failure Studies Director, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: performance of critical facilities, structured tool 

development for field reconnaissance, safety and economic impacts of hazards on the 

built environment, and interaction of humans with the built environment. 

Dr. Scott Weaver, Team Member

Affiliation: National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program Director, EL, NIST

Relevant Areas of Expertise: dynamic and diagnostic analyses of North American 

hydroclimate variability in observationally constrained and climate model datasets, and 

characterization of extreme climatic events (i.e., droughts and floods). 

Dr. Thomas Kirsch, (outside) Team Member

Affiliation: National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH), 

Uniformed Services University

Relevant Areas of Expertise: board-certified emergency physician, disaster 

management and science, and qualitative and quantitative epidemiologic methods to 

improve assessment and disaster management.

The appointed team members will work on four projects related to the investigation: 

(1) Hazard Characterization: the objective of this project is to characterize the wind 
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environment associated with Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico, including 

topographic effects, and to document other hazards associated with the hurricane, 

including storm surge, rainfall, flooding, and landslides in order to understand 

subsequent building failures.

(2) Performance of Critical Buildings: the objective of this project is to characterize 

the performance of critical buildings in Hurricane Maria by: (1) documenting 

failures of structural systems, building envelopes, and rooftop equipment, along 

with the resulting intrusion of wind-driven rain, interior damage, and loss of 

function for a representative sample of hospitals and schools; (2) identifying 

dependencies in loss of function on lifelines; (3) characterizing wind loads on 

building envelopes and rooftop equipment through wind tunnel testing for a subset 

of these hospitals and schools to correlate with observed damage; and (4) 

evaluating the adequacy of existing selection criteria and design requirements for 

storm shelters.

(3) Public Response to Emergency Communications: the objective of this project is to 

investigate the role of emergency communications in public response for those 

under imminent threat from Hurricane Maria. This project will also investigate the 

use of communications in disaster response (during and immediately after the 

hurricane event).

(4) Characterization of Morbidity and Mortality: the objective of this project is to 

complete a quantitative morbidity and mortality assessment of Puerto Rico, to better 

understand how damaged buildings and supporting infrastructure played a role in 

the injuries and deaths associated with Hurricane Maria. The study results will 

provide guidance to improve codes, standards and inform future approaches to 

accurately attribute and predict life loss due to wind storm building failure(s).

Updates on the NCST Hurricane Maria Investigation are updated frequently on the NIST 

website6

.

2. Summary of Recommendations Made by Teams in Reports Issued Under Section 8 of the 

NCST Act during FY 2018

During FY 2018, NIST did not issue a report under Section 8 of the NCST Act.

3. Actions Taken to Improve Building Safety and Structural Integrity During FY 2018 in 

Response to Reports Issued Under Section 8 of the NCST Act

During FY 2018, NIST did not issue a report under Section 8 of the NCST Act.

a. Actions Related to Report on the NIST World Trade Center Investigation:

The following recommendations in the final report of the Collapse of the World Trade Center 

 6 NIST Hurricane Maria website: https://www.nist.gov/topics/disaster-failure-studies/hurricane-maria
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Towers1 were addressed in FY 2018 to improve building safety and structural integrity: 

• In FY 2012, based on a proposal from NIST, a new American Society of Civil Engineers 

(ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) Standards Committee called the 

Disproportionate Collapse Mitigation Standard Committee was established. This voluntary 

standards committee is currently developing a standard, with substantial contributions from 

four NIST staff who are informing the standard with the results of NIST research. In FY 

2018, NIST staff contributed to revisions of the draft standard in response to votes and 

comments from the first ballot, and a second ballot for the draft standard closed in August 

of 2018. 

b. Actions Related to Report on the NIST Joplin Tornado Investigation:

The following recommendations in the NCST Joplin Tornado Investigation final report2 were 

addressed in FY 2018 to improve building safety and structural integrity: 

• NIST continued development of tornado hazard maps for use in tornado-resistant design of 

buildings. This effort directly addresses NIST recommendation #3 (of Recommendations 

Group 1, Tornado Hazard Characteristics and Associated Wind Field) and provides

prerequisite technical underpinning for recommendations #5 and #6 (of Recommendations 

Group 2, Performance of Buildings, Shelters, Designated Safe Areas, and Lifelines, in the 

final report2). 

• NIST continued to work with the ASCE SEI committee that is developing the new 

Tornado Wind Speed Estimation Standard. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) 

is also engaged in this effort, and the standard will be a joint ASCE/SEI/AMS document 

when completed. The committee, co-chaired by National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (NOAA) and NIST staff, is developing standardized methods for 

estimating the wind speeds in tornadoes and other severe wind storms, including 

significant improvements to the Enhanced Fujita Scale. This standards development 

activity directly addresses NIST recommendation #4, and supports NIST recommendations 

#1 and #2 (of Recommendations Group 1, Tornado Hazard Characteristics and Associated 

Wind Field, in the final report2

).

• NIST is collaborating with the ASCE 7-22 Wind Load Subcommittee’s Task Committee on 

Performance-Based Design for Wind Hazards, addressing NIST recommendation #5 (of 

Recommendations Group 2, Performance of Buildings, Shelters, Designated Safe Areas, 

and Lifelines, in the final report2

). The Wind Load Subcommittee is creating a 

performance-based design framework for wind hazards, intended for inclusion in the 

ASCE 7-22 Standard, Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and 

Other Structures. 

• NIST created and is leading a new Tornado Task Committee within the ASCE 7 Wind 

Load Subcommittee. This task committee is developing a tornado wind load design 

methodology and standards provisions, incorporating the NIST tornado hazard maps and 

results of work on a grant awarded by NIST through the Disaster Resilience Research 

Grants Program in FY 2017, to study the differences between external and internal wind 

pressures on buildings in tornadoes versus straight-line winds, that will be proposed for 

incorporation in a new Tornado Loads chapter for ASCE 7-22. These efforts directly 

address NIST recommendation #6 (of Recommendations Group 2, Performance of 

Buildings, Shelters, Designated Safe Areas, and Lifelines, in the final report2

). 
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• NIST was elected to lead the committee developing the 2020 edition of the ICC 500

Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters. NIST, in collaboration with 

FEMA, submitted 10 change proposals for this new edition, including changes related to 

installation of storm shelters in existing buildings. These efforts directly address NIST 

recommendation #7a (of Recommendations Group 2, Performance of Buildings, Shelters, 

Designated Safe Areas, and Lifelines, in the final report2).

• NIST produced Technical Note 1982, A Review of Public Response to Short Message 

Alerts under Imminent Threat. This document presents a review of short message 

platforms, the usage of these systems for emergencies, and research studies that highlight 

the response of the public to these alert types. NIST also published a document (Technical 

Note 2008) that provides evidence-based guidance for communities on the creation and 

provision of public alerts, including both alerts provided by outdoor siren (warning) 

systems and “short messages” sent by social media or other short message service (SMS) 

platforms. This effort supports NIST recommendations #13, #14, and #15 (of 

Recommendations Group 3, Pattern, Location, and Cause of Fatalities and Injuries, and 

Associated Performance of Emergency Communications Systems and Public Response, in 

the final report2).

• NIST continued working on an annex on community-wide public alerts and warnings in 

disaster response, including participating in the Second Draft Meeting of the Technical 

Committee for NFPA 1600 Standard on Continuity, Emergency, and Crisis Management. 

This effort supports NIST recommendations #13, #14, and #15 (of Recommendations 

Group 3, Pattern, Location, and Cause of Fatalities and Injuries, and Associated 

Performance of Emergency Communications Systems and Public Response, in the final 

report2).

In addition to the actions described above, NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) 

has continued to make significant progress developing a new hazardous weather forecasting 

platform called Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs). FACETs include a 

grid-based, all-hazard watch/warning paradigm for communicating probabilistic threats. This 

effort supports NIST recommendation #16 (of Recommendations Group 3, Pattern, Location, and 

Cause of Fatalities and Injuries, and Associated Performance of Emergency Communications 

Systems and Public Response, in the final report2).

4. Preliminary Investigations 

NIST uses a screening tool to assess the need for preliminary reconnaissance of disasters and 

failures that includes the following key decision criteria: event consequences (substantial loss of 

life or disabling injury, significant potential for loss of life; hazard intensity; consequences to 

resilience), major challenges in evacuation and/or emergency response, international factors 

(relevance to the United States), and study impacts (safety of team; new knowledge gains; and 

potential impact to existing standards, codes, and guidelines). Eleven domestic and international 

events were scored in FY 2018, including two hurricanes, three wildland-urban interface fires, two

building fires, two earthquakes, and two structural failures. Two of the eleven events scored met 

preliminary deployment criteria in FY 2018 and resulted in the deployment of teams to collect 

preliminary data and inform recommendations for further study. NIST deployed teams to collect 

preliminary data in response to two events: (1) Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and (2) Tubbs 

wildland-urban interface fire in California. Following up on a preliminary deployment of a team 

in response to Hurricane Harvey in FY 2017, a NIST staff member also participated as a member 
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of the FEMA Mitigation Assessment Team in FY 2018 to further evaluate the impacts of 

Hurricane Harvey.

Hurricane Maria made landfall in southeast Puerto Rico near Yabucoa at approximately 10:15 a.m.

UTC on September 20, 2017, as a strong Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 155 

mph (155 kt) and a record-breaking minimum pressure of 908 mb7. The storm tracked across the 

center of the island, from southeast to northwest, and with the combined effect of the surge and 

tide, produced maximum inundation levels of 6 to 9 ft above ground level to the north of Maria’s 

landfall7

. The hurricane also brought with it more than 20 inches of rain over much of the island, 

with even higher amounts in some areas, causing hundreds of landslides across Puerto Rico7.

Hurricane Maria impacted Puerto Rico two weeks after category 5 Hurricane Irma passed to the 

north of the island. Irma brought tropical storm force winds to the entire island, resulting in 

extensive loss of power that had only just been restored to most customers a few days before 

Maria hit. All of Puerto Rico was exposed to hurricane force winds, extreme rainfall, and 

associated flooding and landslides during Hurricane Maria. Coastal areas around the entire island 

were also exposed to storm surge. These multiple hazards associated with Hurricane Maria caused 

severe physical damage to engineered buildings, non-engineered building systems, and 

infrastructure networks. The storm also caused severe evacuation and sheltering challenges and 

emergency response challenges. 

Hurricane Maria represents a unique opportunity to collect perishable data of damage to buildings 

and infrastructure, as well as the performance of the emergency management system in the field, 

in collaboration with federal, academic, and professional partners. NIST sent one preliminary 

reconnaissance team, totaling four NIST staff, to collect perishable data on the east coast of the 

island, including the following emergency management zones: San Juan, Arecibo, Caguas, 

Humacao, Yabucoa, Loiza, Canovonas, Fajardo, and Vieques. The team split their time between 

collecting building damage data and meeting with local stakeholders. The team focused their 

efforts on: (1) the performance of residential construction, nonresidential construction, schools, 

hospitals, and other critical infrastructure subject to peak winds up to 155 mph; (2) how facilities 

were selected for use as shelters to house people during the storm, and the performance of shelters 

(many schools were used as shelters) in terms of protecting life safety; (3) the performance of 

rooftop solar systems attached to structures, (4) the damage to infrastructure systems and the rate 

at which they recover (an area with little data available); (5) the availability of hazard information 

and the effectiveness of emergency communications in producing protective actions by citizens 

and explaining the variance observed; (7) identifying building and infrastructure damage that may 

lead to functional loss and forcible closures stratified by occupancy type (education, governance, 

and healthcare); (8) identifying building and infrastructure damage that may lead to business 

interruption and forcible closures stratified by business; (8) improved hazard characterization and 

better linkage between the hazard and any observed damages (buildings, trees, signs, etc.); (9) 

interdependencies between infrastructure and social functions (poorly understood currently) and 

the relationship between these dependencies and recovery rates; and (10) refining scope and 

potential study area(s) for a possible subsequent study that aligns with and advances the 

engineering and science research already underway at NIST. As stated above, the NIST Director 

determined that this event did meet the criteria for an NCST investigation.

 7 Pasch, R.J., Penny, A.B., and Berg, R., 2019. The National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane 

Maria. NOAA/NWS Report AL 152017, 48 pp: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL152017_Maria.pdf.
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At least fifteen wildland fires burned in Northern California in October of 2017, impacting 

multiple counties, including Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake, Yuba, Nevada, and Butte. The 

drought conditions for months in California, coupled with low humidity and the Diablo winds (hot, 

dry winds that typically occur in northern California during the spring and fall) have made these 

fires a challenge to contain since they began nine days ago. The fires that year were the deadliest 

in California’s history, and resulted in over 40 civilian fatalities, at least 5700 structures damaged 

or destroyed, approximately 217,000 acres burned, over 75,000 people evacuated, and significant 

disruption of communication systems and electrical power. A considerable regional area and 

population was exposed to the fires, causing a large number of deaths, moderate damage to critical 

lifelines, and severe physical damage to non-engineered buildings. The storm also caused severe 

evacuation and emergency response challenges. The northern California wildfires represented a 

unique opportunity to collect perishable data of buildings, infrastructure, and the emergency 

management system in the field, in collaboration with federal, academic, and professional partners. 

NIST sent one preliminary reconnaissance team, composed of five NIST staff, to collect 

perishable data on the performance of commercial and residential structures within three 

communities affected by the Tubbs fire in Sonoma County (e.g., Coffey Park, Larkfield, and 

Fountain Grove). At least half of the total fatalities are attributed to the Tubbs fire (Sonoma 

County), and so the team concentrated their data collection efforts in locations where fatalities 

occurred and where vegetation in the wildlands were affected by the Tubbs fires. The team 

focused their efforts on: (1) physical damage to residential and commercial buildings and the 

performance of infrastructure systems, including power outages and disrupted communication 

networks; (2) the availability of hazard information, decisions made by emergency officials, and 

the effectiveness of emergency communications in producing protective actions by 

residents/tourists and explaining the variance observed; (3) the performance of evacuation actions 

and behavior by the public; (4) first responder fire suppression tactics and operations; (5) the 

efficacy of recent changes to codes, standards and practices; and (6) refining scope and potential 

study area(s) for a possible subsequent study that aligns with and advances the engineering and 

science research already underway at NIST. Despite its serious nature, after preliminary 

investigation, NIST determined that this event did not meet the criteria for an NCST investigation.

The remaining events did not meet the criteria for a preliminary deployment for one or more of the 

following reasons: no clear study objectives that would impact standards, codes, and practices; 

unsafe conditions for NIST investigators; no primary authority or in-house expertise of hazard 

type; construction practice and codes for international events are not similar to those used in the 

U.S.; no new lessons would be gained; or minimal impact to building occupants. 

5. Conclusion

The NCST Act authorizes NIST to establish and deploy teams to investigate building failures that 

result in a substantial loss of life or pose significant potential for loss of life. In FY 2018, NIST 

assessed eleven events (fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, and structural failures) using a screening 

tool that considers: event consequences (substantial loss of life or disabling injury; potential for 

loss of life; hazard intensity; physical damage) and evacuation and/or emergency response, 

international factors (relevance to the U.S.), and study impacts (safety of team; new 

knowledge gains; and potential impact to existing standards, codes, and guidelines). NIST 

completed two preliminary deployments in FY 2018, and in analyzing the data from Puerto 

Rico, the NIST Director established a team under the NCST Act to further investigate the 
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building performance and emergency response and evacuation during Hurricane Maria in Puerto 

Rico. NIST continues to pursue actions related to improving building safety and structural 

integrity that were recommended by previous NCST investigations. NIST presented these FY 

2018 activities to the NCSTAC during two web-conference meetings on February 20, 2018,

and May 16, 2018, and one in-person meeting at the Gaithersburg campus on August 30, 2018.