After the Flood - There's Hope Homes that are damaged by
flooding can be repaired and made more durable. Flooding is a
fact of life that results in more damage to buildings throughout
the United States than any other single natural cause.
Residential buildings are especially hard hit during floods; the
lives of the residents are disrupted and precious possessions
are lost.While homeowners are discouraged or prohibited from
building new homes in floodprone areas, existing homes,when
damaged,must be repaired. Builders can minimize damage to these
homes from future flooding by repairing or renovating them using
materials and methods that are resistant to flood damage.
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Tuskegee
University have been working to identify and evaluate building
materials, systems, and methods that can be used to repair
houses after flooding and that make the envelope of a house more
resistant to future flood damage (see “After the Flood,”HE
Jan/Feb ’03, p. 12).We were also intere