University of Alabama Researchers Show Small Changes Can Make Big Difference During Tornadoes
Insurance Journal – June 16
Surviving a tornado in a wood-frame residential home is enhanced by an intact roof and standing walls, but light-weight garage doors can be the weak link to allowing high winds and pressure changes into a home that can lead to the removal of the roof and collapsed walls. That’s according to a study of damage left behind by a powerful tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, in 2013 by researchers from The University of Alabama and other institutions. “Once the roof over the garage is blown off, there usually is a significant hole into the main portion of the house,” said Dr. Andrew J. Graettinger, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering and lead author of a report by a team of researchers. Researchers from six institutions traveled to Moore at the end of May 2013 as part of the National Science Foundation Rapid Response Grant for Exploratory Research to gather data about the damage to, and performance of, wood-frame structures in the affected areas due to strong winds. As part of the grant, the researchers also studied whether social media and engineering can combine to influence future building practice. “We need to consider the building components that are the starting points for damage that lead to loss of life, injuries and economic loss during a tornado,” Graettinger said. “If we engineer for these weak areas, we can start keeping these buildings together during all but the strongest winds a tornado can produce.”
Fight advances over black farmers’ legal fee
Newnan Times-Herald (Ga.) – June 16
Partners in one of the South’s prominent African-American law firms have asked the Alabama Supreme Court to remove the trial judge in a lawsuit over how to divide fees from a landmark discrimination case. State Sen. Hank Sanders and his wife, Faya Rose Sanders, are fighting with the family of their late partner J.L. Chestnut Jr. over a $5.2 million fee from the black farmers’ lawsuit against federal agriculture officials. The lawsuit said African-American farmers were denied access to loans and programs by the U.S. Department of Agriculture because of their race. The Sanders family asked the court to remove Circuit Judge Brady Mendheim Jr. from the case because of decisions and remarks he made, including saying before the trial concluded that his decision would likely favor the Chestnut family. Mendheim made the comment before the Chestnut family had completed their case and before the remaining law partners had a chance to present evidence, according to the court filing … Martha Morgan, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, said a judge can be disqualified if his impartiality “might reasonably be questioned.” She said the side seeking the disqualification does not have to demonstrate the judge was actually biased but that a “reasonable person would question a judge’s impartiality.”
Franklin Daily Journal (Ind.) – June 16