The United States, known for its vast expanse as much as its diverse microclimates, has seen a shift in weather patterns over the past 15 years. Setting aside the root causes of Earth’s changing climate, the effects are empirical and influence how the construction industry responds or has yet to.

Tabor Westbrook is the superintendent of operations for the Newton Independent School District, a relatively small school system with less than 1,000 students spread across three campuses in Southeast Texas. The county is inland and geographically closer to the Louisana border than the Gulf of Mexico, so the threat of hurricanes did not previously loom large — until 2020, when it loomed directly overhead.

As August gave way to September that year, Hurricane Laura slammed into the Louisana coast as a powerful Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 mph. According to the National Weather Service, it was the strongest hurricane to strike Southwest Louisiana since records began in 1851. Newton County, Texas, was not spared from harm, and its three schools were among the damaged infrastructure estimated at $20 billion in economic losses.

Adding insult to injury, the school district faced the prospect of being dropped by its insurance carrier—another unforeseen effect of changing climates—precisely because of the once-held belief that microclimates remained predictable. Westbrook said it took about three years to resolve the insurance issues before he could hire a contractor to reroof the buildings.

In spring 2023, the operations director hired Coryell Roofing, which had previously been vetted as an approved contractor through a bidding cooperative for the various school districts that comprised the insurance pool providing coverage for Newton ISD. 

“I’ve spent my life in education,” Westbrook explained. “I didn't know the significant differences between a shingle roof, a metal roof or the type of roof Coryell [proposed], but we went with what Coryell suggested because, the way they explained it to us, it would be the best fit and our school board decided that that would be the best fit, as well.”

A radar image of Hurricane Laura hovering over the East Texas-Western Louisiana border, where the Newton Independent School district suffered catastrophic failures to its three schools.
Image courtesy of NOAA

Westbrook added that the district went with Coryell because of its excellent reputation versus a bottom-line approach. The previous roof systems on the district’s three schools were traditional insofar as they were metal roofs fastened to the structure. While there was a time when a conventional metal roofing system would have been sufficient for a community that did not face threats from very severe hail or other catastrophic weather events, times have changed significantly over the past decade. 

Around mid-January of this year, a large swath of the Great Plains experienced a severe hail event, defined by hail stones at least one inch in diameter. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri were each affected, and according to the weather tracking company HailTrace, more than 112,000 properties were impacted by at least 1-inch hail. Newton County schools faced its first test with its new Duro-Last roof systems.

“We’ve always been sensitive to wind but never hail, and guess what?” Westbrook asked rhetorically. “Zero damage; we had a hailstorm we did not expect or not used to at all and no damage.”

A Coryell representative contacted Westbrook after receiving an alert that a severe hail event was taking place in Newton, which the operations superintendent said indicates the professionalism Oklahoma-based Coryell is known for.

“And the roofs of our schools remained intact, no damage, and it’s just amazing considering we’ve just lived through another terrible weather system,” Westbrook said, referring to Hurricane Beryl, which had hit the Texas coast days earlier. 

“I mean, these hurricanes, man, they're so crazy; the community next to you might have major damage, and then you luck out or just [the opposite],” Westbrook explained, referring back to Hurricane Laura, which gutted much of Newton. In the case of Beryl, Newton was left relatively unscathed, but a short distance away, Jasper, Texas, got socked by an EF-2 Tornado. “And we had very little damage, it’s amazing, so we lucked out this time and, frankly, given the trajectory of the climate, it doesn't look like it's going to get much better at any time in our lifetimes.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has used forecasting to determine which areas of the continental United States will face more significant damage from environmental factors, including severe weather. The southern half of the U.S. faces a significantly more troublesome future.
Image courtesy of NOAA

We Can, “We Must,” Do Better

Chris Coryell, the founder and principal of Coryell Roofing, is a commercial contractor specializing in roofing systems for schools, hospitals and other large, low-slope buildings in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri. In 2023, Duro-Last awarded Coryell Roofing its “Contractor of the Year” award. 

Westbrook and the Newton IDS' selection of Coryell is a testimonial to the company’s reputation in  and opportune timing. Coryell is in the midst of a campaign to improve standards for school roof systems that exceed usual building codes, which he says typically emphasize structural integrity without consideration for severe hail events.

Around the time Newton ISD finally resolved its insurance issues to hire Coryell, the company began working in earnest with FM Approvals, the insurance and product safety organization, to create a uniform standard for school roof system design that would withstand severe weather.

As Coryell explained, school systems throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas have faced difficulties obtaining adequate roof insurance coverage due to a disconnect between the requirements insurance carriers demand and what schools had previously thought was sufficient. 

That gulf has increased premiums, deductibles, and policy exclusions. 

He says the causes of roof integrity and failed roofing systems must be addressed through a comprehensive approach that includes loss prevention standards and a new standardization as the path forward. This is what, some may say, is Coryell’s calling.

“We saw a tremendous amount of policy exclusions and limitations being put in place, and this was just a reactive measure by the insurance carriers or risk pools to mitigate for the loss they've [been] exposed to,” Coryell explained. 

“I looked at [the problem] and said, ‘Why is nobody doing anything about this? Why are we just reacting to it, and why is nobody educating the schools on the type of roof systems they need that will prevent loss and protect them from excessive insurance claims?’”

While the situation did not materialize overnight, Coryell said that it began to come to a head around when Oklahoma and Texas suffered severe ice storms earlier this decade. 

‘After the ice storm that affected Oklahoma and Texas in 2020, that was really what got a lot of people's attention because it was so widespread, and there were so many water loss claims, which really affected the risk pools,” he said.

Coryell has partnered with scientists at FM Approvals to address the vulnerability of traditional roof systems that would remain in place but needed significant repair or wholesale replacement because of shifting hail patterns. The new partners have traveled to seven states, spreading this new gospel with varying success and receptiveness from organizations and lawmakers. 

Pieces of hail pelted Newton, Texas, in January 2024, causing no damage to the newly installed roof systems of any of the three Newton Independent School District schools.
Images courtesy of Hon. Ronald Cochran, judge of Newton County, Texas

Acting in Concert

As for why it’s taken so long to get contractors, school districts, bidding cooperatives and others on the same page to address hail threats, Coryell said there’s no shortage of blame to go around. It’s irrelevant to him as long as the problem is addressed.

His diagnosis of the problem, the critical path toward solving it, and ways to move the industry forward in lockstep will be on display this winter when Coryell and his counterpart from FM Approvals take to the stage at the 20th annual Best of Success conference in Bonita Springs, Fla., Dec 4-6.