Catastrophic Event Consulting
Speedy recovery
When a catastrophe happens, every minute counts. Even after the initial threat passes, damage to structures can intensify and safety can continue to deteriorate. Our CAT Team stands ready to deploy anywhere in the world, 24/7 to help clients mitigate worsening damage and begin the recovery process. Walter P Moore has 24 U.S. offices and 7 international locations, allowing us to respond to any catastrophe, anywhere. Our expertise covers the full range of events, including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, hailstorms, tornadoes, and fires.
Catastrophic Event experts
Our expertise
Every minute that elapses after a disaster exacerbates the damage done. The CAT Team prioritizes your timeline and your safety when addressing the potential damage from natural disasters.
Walter P Moore has more than 87 years of engineering design, consulting, and testing. Our team identifies structures at risk during catastrophic (CAT) events. We find unique, practical, and timely ways to implement improvements.
Our team consists of more than 260 licensed professional engineers that are prepared to assist your property team. We work with brokers, underwriters, claims teams, and external partners to evaluate the risks in your property portfolio.
As part of our pre-loss services, we review property portfolios to identify areas of potential exposure to damage, failure, or collapse. Walter P Moore provides clients with the ability to protect their assets and guard against additional damage and lost revenue.
Services We Provide
Multi-risk assessments
Probable Maximum Loss (PML) studies
Flood and wind vulnerability evaluations
Flood and wind resiliency solutions
Walter P Moore deploys teams of experts to worldwide locations after a CAT event. Our experienced in-house consultant team works with your trusted advisors and preferred vendors to expedite the insurance claims process. We focus on the structural integrity of the facilities we evaluate, and provide technical direction with regards to structural safety. When requested, we work with industry partners to provide additional evaluations, deployment, and oversight.
Services We Provide
Structural forensics
Structural/enclosure post-disaster evaluation
Flood/wind loss evaluations
Building code evaluation and consulting
Property mapping and documentation
Walter P Moore can rapidly deliver digital reports—created concurrently with our site visits—that document existing conditions before and after man-made or natural disasters. Each report contains clear and concise language to explain distress observed, as well as repair options. Observations are communicated with photographs, location maps, and levels of distress. When needed, an order-of-magnitude opinion of probable repair costs can be developed along with a repair prioritization for the observed distress condition. Our deliverables help clients with budgets and insurance claims. We provide reports on the client requests listed below.
We Support
Cause & Origin Investigation
Building Code Evaluation
Dispute Resolution Support
Scope of Damage Determination
Risk Assessment
With offices in North America, Central America, and India, we’re used to responding to CAT Events such as hurricanes, wind, and flood events. Walter P Moore’s engineering experts mobilize within hours of a CAT event, whether man-made or weather related, to conduct damage surveys and report findings in a timely manner. We work with your team and business partners to create tailored, efficient, and detailed reports for claim resolution.
Through our assessments, Walter P Moore’s experts identify patterns of damage and diagnose failures in heavily damaged structures. We determine the types of buildings that performed well during a CAT event, and identify those that were most vulnerable. In times of unfortunate weather events, our clients look to us to help with creative mitigation solutions such as flood doors or roof performance enhancements.
Services Provided in Collaboration with Contractors
Opinions of cost
Bid phase services
Remediation design and repair
Third-party design review
Construction administration services
Relevant experience
65 Structural Failures
We provide forensic services to determine the failure cause through analysis, field assessments, and testing. Additionally, we provide expert witness testimony for legal proceedings and insurance claims.
33 CAT Events
The firm has coastal offices with direct experience with intense hurricanes and flooding. Our clients look to us to help them with mitigation solutions such as flood doors, valves and special access, roof performance enhancements, and site planning.
Tropical Storm Allison (2001)
Walter P Moore recognized the potential for ongoing catastrophic flooding in Houston nearly 20 years ago, before Tropical Storm Allison devastated southeast Texas in June 2001. Just months before the storm, a flood protection system that we designed was installed at Texas Children’s Hospital, preventing serious damage to the hospital and its young patients. Many of the institutions in the Texas Medical Center were on the same track to provide flood protection improvements, but they were not as far along. Ultimately, the TMC hospitals suffered over $2 billion in damages and endangered thousands of patients, families, and healthcare workers. One of the hospitals was closed for over a month.
Since Allison’s aftermath, Houston has weathered several more significant storms, including: the Memorial Day flood in May 2015, the Tax Day flood in April 2016, and most recently Hurricane Harvey. Every step of the way, Walter P Moore engineers have responded quickly to support our partners in recovery and to develop new strategies that give our community the best chance to protect itself from future flood events. The flood protection systems we designed have saved millions in damages during these events.
Hurricane Katrina (2005)
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic damage along the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas. Walter P Moore mobilized to assess damages to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Smoothie King Center (formerly New Orleans Arena), and several downtown parking garages where the water was still in the process of receding. As the National Guard was still conducting emergency operations, Walter P Moore received a state-level government authorization to work around curfew zones.
Hurricane Harvey (2017)
During the flood event in the Houston Metro Area following Hurricane Harvey’s landfall in August 2017, Walter P Moore mobilized as a first responder to assess flood damage to the city’s government buildings, downtown performance venues, and underground parking structures. The most immediate response was required at City Hall and the connecting Annex Building. Walter P Moore determined the severity of impact on the flooded structures and safety concerns of emergency response crews. Even now, we are part of a recovery team to repair downtown buildings that experienced significant loss.
Hurricane Irma (2017)
Days after Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida in September 2017, Walter P Moore engineers arrived at the Care Center at Bentley Village in Naples, a retirement community with critical care patients. The center sustained widespread water infiltration, resulting in damage that required extensive repairs before residents could return. Within three days, we performed an assessment and diagnostic water testing. We provided the repair contractor with waterproofing repair recommendations to mitigate the window system water infiltration. The residents were able to move back in only 20 days following the hurricane.
Walter P Moore also mobilized within days a to provide assessments for a 33-story office tower located at 701 Brickell in downtown Miami, adjacent to the Biscayne Bay. We investigated interior water intrusion and found deteriorated waterproofing systems in need of repair. We designed sealant replacement at the façade on the top 10 levels and replaced the waterproofing membrane and topping slab at two exterior terraces.
Mexico City Earthquakes (2017)
After a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Mexico City on Tuesday, September 19, 2017, Walter P Moore responded immediately to the needs of our real estate clients. The project included three of the tallest buildings in Mexico City – The Torre Mayor, The Torre Omega, and The Torre Reforma. We were able to determine that the earthquake had caused minimal damage: some shattered windows and a minor crack in a concrete wall of the basement cistern at Torre Omega. Once the crack was repaired—a week after the seismic event—we reported to the client that the buildings were safe for employees and patrons to reoccupy.
Hurricane Michael (2018)
On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle near Mexico Beach, east of Panama City, as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds near 155 mph. Walter P Moore performed an assessment on load-carrying members of a Plateplus industrial building superstructure and evaluated the extent of structural damage sustained during the storm.
