StEER: Hurricane Ida Joint Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report - Early Access Reconnaissance Report (PVRR-EARR)

Hurricane Ida made landfall as a major hurricane on the Louisiana coastline on 29 August 2021. It generated damaging winds and storm surge causing widespread damage to structures and to power and telecommunication infrastructure throughout Louisiana. Major damage occurred in the south-east low-lying region. Hurricane Ida’s most severe flash flood impacts occurred in the New England states, and accounted for 51 of 67 fatalities currently attributed to the storm. Ida made landfall on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, but it was a more compact storm, extending only about half the diameter of Katrina. Hurricane Ida’s peak winds were 18 to 50 mph below the minimum design wind speeds that were in place since Louisiana adopted its first statewide building code in 2007. Despite this, structural damage and catastrophic failures occurred within all building ages, categories and structural systems, including single-family and multi-family residential structures, commercial buildings, schools, critical facilities and hospitals, bridges, roadways and port facilities, airport hangars, roadway bridges and high-tension electrical truss towers. This project encompasses the products of StEER's Tier 3 response to this event: a joint Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR) - Early Access Reconnaissance Report (EARR) and Curated Dataset.