9
OPINION
As natural disasters continue to increase in frequency and severity, so will the potential exposure to the design community. A hurricane’s grim reminder for AEC firms
W henever a catastrophic weather event occurs, our thoughts go first and foremost to those whose lives have been dramatically, often permanently affected. Because of the rising temperatures of both water and air as a result of climate change, the impact of storms, fires, droughts, freezes, and floods have taken on new significance. For design firms, that means facing the reality that they operate in a changed landscape fraught with natural perils that are continuing to evolve.
Lauren Rhodes Martin
Hurricane Ian has been described as a 500-year storm, as was Hurricane Harvey several years ago. Ian will likely ultimately be ranked as one of the top five most costly weather events in the United States, following Hurricane Katrina at $186 billion and Hurricane Harvey at $149 billion. As hurricanes and other natural disasters continue to increase in strength and frequency, so does the amount of damage left in their wake. Although it’s hard to imagine that litigation would follow these natural disasters, novel theories often surface in their aftermath. And, unfortunately for the design community, there is almost always an expert willing to testify there was a breach of the standard of care.
Following Hurricane Harvey, there was at least one class action suit regarding site changes to commercial property that allegedly caused additional water runoff onto a large area of an adjacent homeowner’s property. While there undoubtedly would have been more than five feet of water entering the homes regardless of that work, the claim was it increased the amount of water by a matter of inches. Not only were there experts willing to testify that it was reasonably foreseeable that this 500-year storm would occur and that the increased runoff would cause additional damage, there were also experts willing to testify that the inches of added water caused millions of dollars in additional damage.
See LAUREN RHODES MARTIN, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER JANUARY 9, 2023, ISSUE 1471
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