DOI: 10.17603/ds2-kc9k-s242
title: StEER: Hurricane Ian Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR)
title: in StEER - Hurricane Ian

description: Eighteen years after Hurricane Charley made landfall in 2004, Hurricane Ian made landfall in nearly the same location, also as a Category 4 hurricane. Unlike Hurricane Charley (2004), water more so than wind was the impetus behind the disaster that unfolded. Despite being a below-design-level wind event, the large windfield drove a powerful storm surge as much as 13 ft high (relative to the NAVD8 vertical datum) in the barrier islands of Sanibel, Ft. Myers Beach, and Bonita Beach. Flooding was extensive along not only the Florida coast, but also well inland into low-lying areas as far north as Duval County and the storm’s second landfall site in South Carolina. As such, Hurricane Ian will likely be one of the costliest landfalling hurricanes of all time in the US, claiming over 100 lives. 

The impacts from Hurricane Ian were most severe in the barrier islands from the combination of storm surge and high winds, with many buildings completely washed away, and others left to deal with significant scour and eroded foundations. Several mobile/manufactured home parks on the barrier islands fared particularly poorly, offering little to no protection to anyone unfortunate enough to shelter in them. The damage was not restricted to buildings, as the causeways out to the barrier islands were washed away in multiple locations. In contrast, wind damage from Hurricane Ian appears less severe overall relative to other Category 4 storms, perhaps due to a combination of actual wind intensity being less than Category 4 at the surface at landfall, and the improvements in building construction that have occurred since Hurricane Charley struck 18 years earlier. It is notable that extensive losses were in part driven by decades-long construction boom of residential structures in Ft. Myers and Cape Coral since the 1950s and 1960s, expanding communities and neighborhoods encroaching upon vulnerable coastlines. Beyond serving as an important event to validate current and evolving standards for coastal construction, Hurricane Ian provides a clarion call to reconsider the ramifications of Florida's coastal development under changing climate.

This project encompasses the products of StEER's response to this event: Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR), Early Access Reconnaissance Report (EARR) and Curated Dataset.
description: This Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR) is the primary product of the StEER Level 1 response to Hurricane Ian, intended to:
provide an overview of Hurricane Ian, particularly relating to wind and storm surge hazards and their impact on the built environment, 
establish the regulatory environment and construction practices in the affected area,
synthesize preliminary reports of damage to buildings and other infrastructure, and
provide recommendations which include:
Performance of Elevated Buildings Subjected to Coastal Hazards
Characterization and Prediction of Coastal Hazards
Performance of Nature-Based Protective Systems
Performance of Infrastructure Under Coastal Hazards
Performance of Power Infrastructure Under Combined Hazards
Serving as a synthesis document, the PVRR is accompanied by a Media Repository providing a rich collection of georeferenced visual evidence cataloged by infrastructure class. Interested readers may also consult the accompanying Outage/Restoration Database for a chronology of disruption/outage/restoration data for power, telecommunications, and transportation networks. As the product of entirely virtual reconnaissance, the PVRR is not based upon detailed field investigations by StEER.