Moore schools devastated by tornado had flawed construction

Photo by: Alex Maxwell

 

A detailed analysis of the destruction of two Moore elementary schools from the May 20 tornado is to be released soon, and it appears the blame will soon be attributed to the construction of the schools.

The May 20 EF5 tornado ripped through two Moore public elementary schools, Briarwood and Plaza Towers, leaving piles of rubble in its wake. Seven students were killed at Plaza Towers and dozens more were injured at both schools.

An article by The Journal Record calls the two elementary schools “deathtraps” and claims both buildings had construction flaws and code violations – but the situation may not be as black and white as The Journal Record portrays it to be.

According to the article “Deathtrap: Moore Tornado Debris Reveals Construction Flaws, Code Violations” by The Journal Record, a soon-to-be-released report filed for the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Structural Engineering Institute details an analysis of the debris of both elementary schools.

The analysis shows that, in the case of Briarwood Elementary School, several of the building’s steel roof beams were not attached to the walls, many of the cinder-block walls were not properly reinforced with steel rebar and large portions of the walls were not backfilled with concrete – all of which add to a building’s defense against tornados. The analysis found similar results at Plaza Towers.

“Odds are, if the schools had been built right the walls would not have fallen,” Chris Ramseyer, the civil engineer who studied photographs of Plaza Towers said in the article.

Ramseyer also goes into detail about some of the findings to be released in his report.

“[At Briarwood] we found one horizontal steel beam that was designed as a support beam for masonry over the entrance to two classrooms,” Ramseyer said to The Journal Review. “But there was no connection from the beam to the masonry anywhere. No connection. The beam was just sitting there on the walls. Only gravity held it in place. Obviously, that’s not being built to code.”

Looking at the big picture, however, the situation may not be as cut and dry as it seems.

“Although I believe any of these components would have resulted in a better building, that does not mean they weren’t built correctly,” senior engineering major John Frias said. “[Plaza Towers] was built in 1965 when obviously there were less building codes to enforce.  I believe the underlying problem here is that we don’t have civil engineers like this evaluating schools and other buildings prior to storms.”

Frias also said that the blame shouldn’t be shifted on any one party involved with either elementary school.

“No one should be playing the blame game,” Frias said.

“Many people were at fault here; the school, code inspectors and so on. Those that point the finger, like  [civil engineers] need to take this opportunity to increase requirements for inspection and decrease the risk of this happening again.”

Wayne Whaley, professor and chair of mechanical engineering, echoed Frias – explaining that due to the age of the buildings, faulty construction and engineering may not be to blame.

“Codes tend to change as more knowledge comes in,” Whaley said. “There could be thousands of schools and hospitals that were built 50 years ago that satisfied the codes then, but if you were to build a new hospital, school or residence now, there would be a different set of codes that they would have to abide by. So from reading the article, it sounds like [the schools] don’t satisfy codes that exist now.”

The Journal Record also reveals that construction records show Briarwood was designed in 1984 by architectural and engineering company RGDC, an Oklahoma City firm who, when problems with their other buildings surfaced, had two of their partners found guilty of practicing engineering outside their area of competence. The third partner, architect F. Robert Cornell, was found guilty of practicing engineering without a license.

“I am very appalled that someone would practice engineering outside of their area of expertise or without a license,” Whaley said. “Unfortunately, engineers can get work without having that license to practice engineering, but there are laws for construction that says plans must be approved and supervised by a registered professional engineer and from the article, it looks like there were some engineers practicing without a license and practicing outside of their field of competence.”

While the engineering may not be at fault, it does, however, raise questions for some about the depth of code inspections.

“I’m left with three questions,” Frias said. “One, what is the current code inspection standard? What does it take to pass and what are they looking for? Two, who is doing the inspecting? How qualified are they and do they know what they are looking for? And three, how often is it? Please tell me it’s not every 50 years.”

Senior Madison Huntsman shared Frias’ concerns over code inspections and said she felt as though the public should be made more aware of passing requirements.

“I understand that the buildings may have been built according to code for the time that they were built if the report that is released confirms that, but shouldn’t the public have been made aware of that?” Huntsman said. “Or shouldn’t the public be informed on what the passing requirements are for buildings that were built well before current codes?”

Taking the report in mind and learning from the tragedy that struck in Moore, some just hope this will be taken into consideration for better, safer schools in the future.