Hurricanes Camille (1969), Frederic (1979) and Elena (1985) subjected the Gulf coastal region to wind speed regimes at or near design level events. Additionally, during this time interval, the wind load provisions of ANSI A58.1 and the industrial standard for Metal Building Systems (MBMA) had undergone extensive revisions. Tens of thousands of steel-framed, pre-engineered buildings were affected by these three hurricanes providing valuabel field evidence to assess structural performance. The object of this communication is to review the damage patterns inflicted by these major storms and suggest mitigation strategies for reducing the damage to metal building systems.