1

National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee (NCSTAC)

Meeting Summary

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Gaithersburg, Maryland 

(Public Meeting conducted via web-conference)

October 23, 2020

Advisory Committee Members:

Reginald DesRoches, Chair Rice University

Ross Corotis, Vice-Chair University of Colorado, Boulder

William Holmes Rutherford + Chekene 

José Izquierdo-Encarnación PORTICUS

Gary Klein Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. 

Kimberly Shoaf Utah School of Medicine

Jeannette Sutton University at Albany

NIST Representatives

Howard Harary Director, Engineering Laboratory (EL)

Jason Averill Chief, Materials & Structural Systems Division 

Judith Mitrani-Reiser Associate Chief, Materials & Structural Systems Division

(listed in alphabetical order) 

Benjamin Davis Designated Federal Officer, NCSTAC 

Maria Dillard Acting Director, Disaster and Failure Studies 

Joseph Main Lead Investigator, Hurricane Maria NCST Investigation 
2

I. Welcome and Opening Remarks

Mr. Benjamin Davis, serving as the Designated Federal Officer, called the meeting to order and 

introduced the NIST EL Director, Dr. Howard Harary. 

Dr. Harary offered opening remarks to the Committee. He welcomed Dr. Reginald DesRoches as the new 

Chair of the Committee and Dr. Ross Corotis as the Committee's new Vice-Chair. Dr. Harary gave a quick 

summary of the topics discussed at the NCSTAC Meeting on June 30, 2020. He also welcomed Mr. José 

Izquierdo-Encarnación as the newest member of the Committee. Dr. Harary noted that NCST 

investigations are not about finding fault, but instead are focused on fact-finding with the purpose of 

improving the safety of buildings. Dr. Harary then gave a brief review of the Committee's 

responsibilities, specifically, the Committee’s responsibility to advise the Director of NIST on the 

composition of the NCST and the Team’s efforts to adhere to the NCST Act. 

II. Meeting Goals & Agenda

Dr. DesRoches welcomed the new Committee member, Mr. Izquierdo-Encarnación, and thanked the 

new Vice-Chair, Dr. Corotis, for accepting his new role. He then gave an overview of how the meeting 

would proceed and the following goals of the meeting:

● Review the Disaster and Failure Studies Program’s scoring of events and readiness of teams,

● Review the status of the NCST investigation of Hurricane Maria’s effects on Puerto Rico, and

● Further develop the Committee's annual report to Congress.

III. DFS scoring of Events and Readiness of Teams

The presentation provided by Dr. Maria Dillard can be found here: 

DFS Scoring of Events and Readiness of Teams Presentation

Dr. Dillard introduced herself as the Acting Director of the Disaster and Failure Studies Program and the 

Associate Lead of the Hurricane Maria NCST Investigation. She reminded the Committee that the 

purpose of the NCST Act is to establish Teams to assess building performance and emergency 

evacuation procedures in the wake of building failures. Dr. Dillard reviewed the decision process used to 

recommend establishing a Team for an NCST investigation. There are both qualitative and quantitative 

aspects of the criteria used to make a decision to deploy a Team. Dr. Dillard showed an example from a 

previously scored event to demonstrate how all of the aspects of an event are categorized, weighted, 

and summarized in the evaluation. Events are scored on a scale of zero to five for two categories: 1) 

Event Consequence and 2) Evacuation & Response. The scoring mechanism also supports the decision 

on subsequent actions under other NIST authorities, such as the National Windstorm Impact Reduction 

Program (NWIRP) and the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP). Dr. Dillard reviewed 

a list of events that have been scored from December 2019 to October 2020 and denoted the events 

where NIST deployed a team or participated as part of a virtual reconnaissance team, as well as events 

where NIST coordinated with a Disaster Resilience Research Grantees on preliminary reconnaissance 

deployments.
3

Committee Discussion

The Committee noted that the table of scored events displayed in the presentation showed multiple 

events with seemingly high scores and asked how Hurricane Maria scored in 2017 for comparison 

purposes. NIST responded that the score for Hurricane Maria was 4.7 for Event Consequence and 5.0 for 

Evacuation and Response and added that the quantitative score is only part of the consideration. 

Another large part of the decision to deploy a team is determining what lessons may be learned from 

investigating the event further and assessing how these lessons could be applied to other parts of the 

U.S. that may experience a similar event. Other qualitative criteria include NIST’s authorities, 

assessment of site conditions and field team safety, and the availability of resources for the deployment. 

Dr. Dillard also stated that this assessment is used to determine if a preliminary reconnaissance is 

appropriate. Data gathered in a preliminary reconnaissance are then used to determine if a full 

investigation is appropriate. 

The Committee also asked about the impact of geographic location in determining if NIST should deploy 

a reconnaissance team. NIST responded that the location is very important. For example, there is an 

additional quantitative factor that is included for international events to assess if building codes and 

construction methods are similar to the U.S. The similarities in building design and construction practice 

are considered to ensure that an investigation pursued in other countries would result in lessons that 

can be applied in the U.S. 

Finally, the Committee asked how NIST would evaluate a flood that resulted in significant building 

damage. NIST answered that flood and dam failures represent a challenge in that the failure of a dam 

falls outside of the NCST Act, while the failure of a building that was caused by the flooding following a 

dam failure may fall within the NCST Act. This nuance is important in determining if an event is within 

the scope of the NCST Act or if it should be evaluated for further study under another authority.

IV. Hurricane Maria NCST Investigation Update & Adaptations for COVID-19

The presentation provided by Dr. Joseph Main can be found here: 

Hurricane Maria NCST Investigation Update & Adaptions for COVID-19 Presentation

Dr. Main gave a review of the goals of the Hurricane Maria Investigation. It was authorized by the 

Director of NIST in February of 2018. The goals of the 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. 

There are three complementary projects that are focused on the recovery which are being carried out 

under the NWIRP authority.

Several significant updates were presented to the Committee, including the following:

● The progress report on the investigation is in preparation for publication;
4

● All major contracts supporting the investigation have been awarded and work is in progress;

● An Internal Review Board (IRB) non-research exemption has been granted for all the NCST 

investigation projects; and

● The Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) has been approved by DOC for new EL-managed data 

systems for the Hurricane Maria work. 

The Hurricane Maria progress report will be published in English and Spanish. The executive summary is 

expected to be the most informative section for many stakeholders. It includes information about the 

progress of the investigation, outreach to date, an initial wind-field model, and other highlights from the 

technical projects. 

For the Hazard Characterization project, anemometers have been installed on three cell towers in the 

Yabucoa Region, near where Hurricane Maria made landfall. Measurements of topographic effects on 

winds at these cell tower sites will provide full-scale data for validation of wind tunnel models and 

computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models that are being used to evaluate topographic effects on 

winds in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria. For the Critical Buildings project, five hospital facilities 

have been selected for evaluation; four facilities reside in the regions of Puerto Rico that have been 

selected for further study in the investigation and one hospital is in a location in Puerto Rico calculated 

to have the highest topographic speedup factor. A three-dimensional model has been created from 

drone images to support the fabrication of a wind tunnel model.

For the Emergency Communication project, the sampling plan for household surveys has been 

completed and data collection is now underway.

Due to COVID-19, the Hurricane Maria Team has transitioned to phone and/or web-based modes of 

data collection for the projects dependent on social science data collection methodologies. Pandemic 

training and safety protocols have also been put in place for field teams collecting information. NIST is 

continuing to work via telework and is meeting with contractors remotely.

Committee Discussion

The Committee wanted to know how the census geographic units employed in the sampling 

methodology will be used for the Emergency Communications project’s household survey, and if the 

survey will be done by phone and/or web. NIST responded that addresses pose a challenge in Puerto 

Rico, but the Contractor’s data collection team will have a walking plan with directions based on the 

physical location of the census block group and a predetermined starting point. This method will require 

the data collectors’ physical presence at the location to either drop off (e.g., postcard with the survey 

web link) or collect information (e.g., phone number for follow-up). The field team will be abiding by 

COVID-19 safety protocols while working. Other methodologies for data collection have been proposed 

and can be used if necessary.

The Committee noted some sensitivities around the previous mortality study by George Washington 

University (GWU) and wanted more information on NIST’s methods for evaluating the work proposed 

for the NCST investigation. NIST responded that the contract supporting the work in the NCST 

investigation was openly competed and the proposals were rigorously evaluated by a technical 

evaluation team before awarding the contract. The political charge surrounding the morbidity and 

mortality of Hurricane Maria is related to the death count shared by the Government of Puerto Rico and 
5

estimated by several studies using varying methods. The goal of the NCST investigation, supported by 

this contract, is to answer the question of how building failures led to deaths and not to generate 

another death count for the storm. 

V. Hurricane Maria Investigation Project Management

The presentation provided by Mr. Benjamin Davis can be found here: 

Hurricane Maria Investigation Project Management Presentation

Mr. Davis gave an overview of the Hurricane Maria Program, which is using two statutory authorities 

(NCST and NWIRP) and eight supporting contracts to achieve its goals. He described the acquisition 

process, which was broken down into five phases: sources sought, develop and submit acquisition 

documents, solicit the competition, evaluate offers, and award contracts.

The process described was typical for the acquisition of services specific to the Hurricane Maria 

Program. The contracts supporting the NCST projects required review by the NIST Office of Chief 

Counsel, which is an additional step in the contract timeline. Contract clauses related to activities that 

support an NCST Investigation were added to each contract awarded under the Hurricane Maria 

Program. In some cases, these clauses resulted in the need for additional negotiations between NIST 

and contract awardees.

Mr. Davis also presented the timelines for each contract that was awarded to support the Hurricane 

Maria Program. He noted a few key conclusions that can be drawn from reviewing all the contract 

timelines:

● Contracts with lower complexity and higher market availability of services resulted in shorter 

acquisition times. 

● The development of the statements of work (SOWs) required substantial effort.

● The work contracted to support the Hurricane Maria Program falls outside of expertise housed 

at NIST.

● A one-month government shutdown resulted in more than one month of delay for awarding 

contracts.

● Some contracts took longer to award because of NIST’s stringent technical requirements, as well 

as the unique requirements for the NCST Investigation. 

Committee Discussion

The Committee had no questions in response to this presentation.

VI. Hurricane Maria NCST Investigation Morbidity and Mortality Project

The presentation provided by Dr. Judith Mitrani-Reiser can be found here: 

Hurricane Maria NCST Investigation Morbidity and Mortality Project Presentation
6

Dr. Mitrani-Reiser began with a brief overview and mentioned that the NCST Act authorizes NIST to 

establish teams to assess building performance and emergency evacuation procedures in the wake of 

any event that has resulted in or could have resulted in significant loss of life. The objective of the 

Morbidity and Mortality 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 results are intended to provide guidance to 

improve codes, standards, and inform future approaches to attribute and predict loss of life due to 

building failure(s) caused by windstorms.

The contract supporting this project was recently awarded to the George Washington University Milken 

Institute School of Public Health and the University of Puerto Rico—Medical Sciences. This contract has 

three primary deliverables for which extensive detail on methodology was provided. The main 

deliverables of the contract are: an integrated database of deaths in Puerto Rico resulting from 

Hurricane Maria; a spatial and temporal analysis of deaths; and the deployment of a disaster-centric 

verbal autopsy to next of kin, which includes a questionnaire and a module of analysis to ascertain the 

cause of death. All of the project leads are fluent in Spanish, which was a skill requested in the contract 

solicitation. Dr. Mitrani-Reiser also presented a project management dashboard developed in 

Smartsheet that will be used to track all of the project deliverables and communicate project status to 

team members. 

Dr. Mitrani-Reiser ended her presentation by thanking Dr. Thomas Kirsch from the National Center for 

Disaster Medicine and Public Health, and Captain Rebecca Noe from the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention for all of their collaborative efforts.

Committee Discussion

The Committee found the presentation of the contractor’s plans to be very impressive and wanted to 

know about how the key informants could be identified and if NIST had an estimate of a percentage of 

deaths that will be able to be identified. NIST responded that death certificates include next of kin as a 

standard piece of information, and plan to use that information to identify key informants. Dr. MitraniReiser responded that death certificates do not typically include a notation attributing fatalities to a 

storm. Dr. Carlos Santos-Burgoa of the George Washington University added that the likelihood of 

identifying information is high, and that other sources of data will be collected in addition to death 

certificates (e.g., 911 emergency call records, DMORT records, funeral and burial assistance records). He 

also noted that the quality of information from verbal autopsies may vary, and that having different 

sources of information in the integrated database is important. Dr. Santos-Burgoa concluded that the 

most important question to answer in their work is, "what led to the death?"

The Committee also asked about the reliability of identifying the cause of death correctly. NIST 

responded that the goal of the integrated database is to identify as much information as possible around 

every single death that resulted from Hurricane Maria. The verbal autopsies are expected to provide 

more information to lead to the accurate determination of cause of death. The contract supporting this 

effort also has an option for a clinical panel, which would be made up of medical experts that would be 

able to arrive at a consensus regarding the cause of death for cases with incomplete information.

The Committee expressed their enthusiasm for a methodology to account for deaths resulting from a 

hazard, such as Hurricane Maria. The Committee recognized that a disaster-centric verbal autopsy 

instrument represents a significant outcome for both this project and the broader field of disaster 
7

metrology and is looking forward to the progress of the work. NIST responded that the CDC has been 

providing advice on this project since the beginning and has vested interest in supporting the 

development of this instrument. Further, this aspect of the project fits well within NIST's domain of 

disaster metrology as the project team works to establish a standardized method to identify the cause(s) 

of death in the wake of a hurricane. This is expected to be able to serve as a model for other types of 

hazard events such as earthquakes or volcanoes.

The Committee asked if causes of death that were not related to building failure (e.g., lack of medicine) 

would be included in the analysis. NIST responded that the goal is to identify any death directly related 

to building failure that occurred within fourteen days of the event. Ultimately, the plan is to collect as 

much data as possible and to allow each death to tell its story. Due to the larger geographic scope of the 

current investigation, additional information about all deaths, regardless of cause, following Hurricane 

Maria will be collected. 

Finally, the Committee asked if a further explanation could be given around the “reliability score” that 

was mentioned in the presentation. NIST responded that a reliability score will be included to indicate 

the level of confidence in the linking of other records to death certificates (e.g. assigning credit for the 

number of matched fields) throughout the linkage process of the integrated database. For example, if 

data from multiple sources matches, then the “Reliability Score” will be 100%. However, when multiple 

data sources produce conflicting information, the score will be lower. Ultimately the team will need to 

determine what is the lowest acceptable score. 

VII. Open Committee Discussion 

Since there were no registrants for the public comment period, the Committee transitioned into an 

open discussion. Dr. DesRoches asked if the Committee had any questions about any of the topics 

covered.

The Committee asked about the National Disaster Safety Board, which is a legislative initiative currently 

under development. NIST responded that the agency had provided technical assistance on the proposed 

language in the legislation and there was nothing further to share at this time.

The Committee asked how NIST will extrapolate lessons from Hurricane Maria to other events and 

communities to prevent loss of life in the future. Dr. Main responded that NIST will look at the relevant 

standards that are currently in place and identify gaps or needs for improvement. Dr. Main noted that 

there were features about this event that were similar to previous events, such as Hurricanes Harvey 

and Irma, in which non-structural damage resulted in loss of function for critical buildings. NIST will 

investigate the factors that led to loss of building function, which are not limited to structural failures 

but include damage to building envelopes and rooftop equipment. The investigation’s focus on 

engineered structures will also enable NIST to evaluate the performance of buildings conditioned on the 

era of codes and standards used in their design. As with previous NCST investigations, the findings of the 

Hurricane Maria investigation will inform recommendations for improvements to U.S. codes and 

standards. For example, current standards provide limited guidance on how to account for topographic 

effects on wind in the design of buildings, and this event provides an opportunity for NIST to evaluate 

these effects and the adequacy of existing standards. Dr. Mitrani-Reiser added that this investigation 
8

could also result in recommendations for a standard death certificate form that would contain specific 

information to better identify the cause of death. 

Dr. Harary thanked the Committee for their engagement and informed them that he and the NCST 

members would be available for any further questions. 

VIII. NCSTAC Preparation of Annual Report to Congress

The Committee entered into their working session for a discussion of key points for their 2020 Annual 

Report to Congress. The Committee Chair reviewed the draft material for the Report with the 

Committee. The Committee discussed the recommendations that would be listed in the Report and 

made sure that the letter included all of the information the Committee was briefed on throughout the 

year. Key points included adding text about NIST's response and adaptation to COVID-19 and the 

updates received related to the Hurricane Maria Program's contract support. The Committee also 

deliberated on whether they wanted to add more information about what they learned during the 

preceding presentations. Information about the morbidity and mortality project was added to reflect 

the importance of how the findings and procedures that will be developed for the project will have 

further uses in the future. 

The Committee also discussed how many events have been scored by NIST during 2020. Dr. Dillard 

confirmed for the Committee that NIST had scored 21 events up until the date of the meeting but that 

she is in the process of scoring two additional events. Because the Report is done on a calendar year 

basis, the Report will reflect the number of investigations that were completed on a calendar year as 

well, as opposed to a fiscal year basis. NIST will confirm the number of events closer to the end of 2020.

Mr. Klein brought up the many events scored dealing with extreme weather events (e.g., hurricanes, 

tornadoes, etc.) and suggested including the link between the increasing number of extreme weatherrelated events and climate change in the report. The Committee decided not to include that information 

in the report this year, but to keep this in mind for future reports.

Mr. Izquierdo-Encarnación suggested that in an effort to increase the safety of structures used for 

shelter in the U.S., the Committee should recommend government oversight and evaluation in regard to 

the safety and resilience of structures that are to be used as shelters for hazardous/extreme events. Mr. 

Klein added that he agreed and that this point is touched on in the current letter, where it discusses the 

condition of tornado shelters. Dr. Corotis agreed that it was an area that should be studied further. Dr. 

Sutton added that she noticed that during the presentation about the events that had been scored, Dr. 

Dillard noted that there was a lack of consistency in the conditions of shelters, along with guidance 

about shelter use during the pandemic. Dr. Sutton understood that there was a limit on the amount of 

resources, but expressed strong interest in NIST studying the condition of shelters and that are used as 

well as the communication methods used to inform people about shelter locations. The fact that the 

pandemic now also needs to be taken into consideration, specifically planning for socially distanced 

sheltering, makes the shelter issues more urgent. Mr. Izquierdo-Encarnación noted that the schools that 

were used for shelters in Hurricane Maria were not in the best condition during the event. Dr. Shoaf 

stated that usually, the people who use emergency shelters are already part of a vulnerable population. 

She added that if the shelters they use are not safe, the people using the shelters are made even more 
9

vulnerable. The Committee decided to add text regarding planning for infectious disease transmission 

to the report. Following the discussion, Mr. Davis, serving as the Designated Federal Officer, thanked the 

Committee for their work throughout the day and called the meeting to a close.