Name Assigned: Diamond head

Address: Unknown

Coordinates: N30d23’09.2”/W089d21’45.2”

Structure Description: These were two story units, six apartments per unit. The units were originally built in 1970 with flat roofs. The roofs were then retrofitted around 1980 with a sloped truss roof. The roof portion was fairly well built.

Failure Description: A major weakness was tying the roof to the top plate. In one case a roof structure about 20’ wide blew off as a complete unit, remaining relatively in tact. Another observed error was that the hurricane ties were not sufficiently tied to either the truss or the top plate of the wall. Only one nail was used to connect the hurricane tie to the truss, and it appeared that no nails were put into the top plate. In the large portion of roof blow-off, the roof took the top plate with it, which was apparently not sufficiently attached to the existing structure.

In this same neighborhood, there were a few occurrences of roof sheathing loss. The roofs were already tarped, so getting nail spacings was impossible. It should be noted that in the case where there was a roof failure, the plywood appeared to be attached following the code prescribed spacing in 1980.

Additional Information: There was storm surge on the highway going North from Waveland, MS. Debris from the storm surge was almost to the bottom of the overpass concrete girders.

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