That's amazing...that's the way they build in Cozumel, and a lot of places down there have stood the test of many storms.

That's definitely surge damage. I wonder if the velocity of the surge is a factor in this kind of damage, and also if a building rotated 45 deg (so the V is facing the surge) would make any difference.

Camille's surge was so powerful it pulled plumbing pipes from concrete foundations. On one of the MS barrier islands (can't remember if it was Ship or Horn Island), a house was built on piers -- the thick wood posts that have to be pounded into the ground by that huge machine, like they build all the houses in places like Ocean City NJ -- and the building was tied to the piers...so Katrina simply pulled out some of the piers from the ground when she took the building.

Both ends of Horn Island were left underwater by Katrina -- one a beach that is over a mile long, and part of Petis Bois Island as well. West Ship Island is leveled except for the fort (another hurricane, Camille, split Ship Island in two in 1969). Still, that isn't as bad as the Chaneleur Islands in LA; IVAN had taken off all the foliage, and after Katrina they are for the most part shoals.

On second look...those look more like pillars rather than integrated parts of a wall. This may have been the piers that a house was build upon, and then I could understand the failure if the surge was higher than the piers, if there was a house on top, and no support on the ground level between each pier.