In 2005, the one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 115 platforms and damaged 52 others. Offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf shut down for weeks. “The overall damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has shown them to be the greatest natural disasters to oil and gas development in the history of the Gulf of Mexico,” a government official said some months later.

The 2005 hurricane season did force the industry to take hurricane preparations more seriously. In 2008, the American Petroleum Institute released a new set of standards for offshore platforms. The changes included how high the platforms should be to account for the cresting waves of a 100-year storm. As the Times-Picayune has reported, these heights have been a “moving target for the past century.” In the 1940s, offshore platforms were 20 to 40 feet above sea level. In the 1990s, more than 70 feet. And after Katrina and Rita, they are now at 91 feet.

The platform height is crucial, says Robert Bea, a professor emeritus in civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, because it is supposed to protect platforms from the most dangerous part of the storm. Offshore platforms can generally deal with wind and rainfall okay, but cresting waves will do real damage. “The pressures generated in those wave crests can exceed several thousand pounds per square inch,” says Bea. Everything below the platform has to reinforced to withstand those pressures.

Bea thinks that U.S. regulations are still too weak when it comes to protecting offshore platforms from Gulf hurricanes. Other countries like the United Kingdom, for example, use a “safety case” system. Safety cases have their origins in the nuclear industry, and they proactively lay out all of the risks of a facility along with how they will be controlled. In contrast, says Bea, U.S. regulators take a more reactive approach to risks.

The United Kingdom operates offshore platforms in the North Sea, where inclement weather is common. “They have intense weather for a very long time,” says Bea. “It’s another factor that encourages them to be more proactive in these investments to prevent large failures.” The Gulf of Mexico, on the other hand, is placid and safe for most of the year. Until a hurricane hits.