THOUSANDS OF WINDOWS DAMAGED IN HOUSTON HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS

Strong winds damaged more than 3,000 windows and dozens of skylights at high-rise buildings in downtown Houston this past week. According to media outlets, windows were blown out in several iconic buildings, including Wells Fargo Plaza, Total Energies, Enterprise Plaza, Kinder Morgan and Chevron. Officials say it could take months to repair all the windows.

The extensive damage led Houston Mayor John Whitmire to set up an exclusion zone of six blocks around downtown as crews continued to clean the area of the extensive broken glass and debris.

“Sightseers/curious folks should be urged to avoid walking the area where (the Houston Police Department) has closed streets until it is secured from the danger of falling glass,” said Houston Downtown Management District officials. “New windows for some businesses could take months to be replaced because of the supply chain issues and the need to fabricate and match specialty glass.”

Barry Nishman of Houston-based Arcadia Inc. says most of the damage was to glass and glazing, not necessarily the framing.

“From what I’ve seen personally and from the news, the homes damaged will have to be rebuilt, which will require new windows, mainly vinyl and aluminum framed, with glass,” he says. “It’s going to take some time for insurance to settle and then to rebuild.”

Nishman adds that the large commercial buildings downtown mainly consist of damaged insulating glass units. As a result, he says glaziers will see an uptick in business as the building’s tenants look to resume operations quickly.

Spring has not been favorable to Houston. Along with the thousands of damaged windows, the severe thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds this past week killed eight people and contributed to power outages and widespread structural damage. A tornado also touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress. The storms followed flooding in late April and early May after heavy rainfall.