WEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - With hurricane season just weeks away, experts advise residents in parts of the country that could be in the path of a storm to have an updated list of material they need to protect their homes, and one local university is taking a hands-on approach to help make sure people stay safe.
Wednesday, researchers at Florida International University’s International Hurricane Research Center used the Wall of Wind to conduct the first in a series of large-scale hurricane simulation experiments on manufactured homes.
“This is meant to change those building code standards, to give the evidence base, to give the evidence base of why a change is needed, and what a positive change could look like and how far it could get us,” said Elaina Sutley, associate processor with the University of Kansas.
Testing started Tuesday, when researchers were blowing wind speeds of about 100 miles per hour, causing debris and scattered bricks.
“Today we’re testing a manufactured home, and we’re going to see how it performs with hurricane force winds, and the anchoring, how is it held down? Because are there changes that need to be made?” said Erik Salna, Associate Director of Education and Outreach for the Extreme Events Institute and the International Hurricane Research Center. “If we come up with those answers for research, that means manufactured homes will be more resilient, and that helps make them more resilient as well, as far as people living in them.”
Wednesday’s simulation started off slow, with wind speeds starting at about 20 to 25 mph, as the Wall of Wind began to test the durability of a manufactured home.
By 8 a.m., the Wall of Wind was set to speeds of 130 mph, with the wind speeds hitting the home at about 10 to 20 miles per hour less than that.
At 9 a.m., the wall’s fans were set to speeds of 150 mph, and while support of the home was gone, it was still standing.
While this home is up to Miami-Dade’s code, many homes are not and face a different reality.
When researchers essentially took away half the anchors, and turned the Wall of Wind up to 130 mph, the home to flipped over multiple times.
The research is vital to save homes like the one tested and to save lives.
“We are only testing this for wind, but imagine a hurricane is not just wind; it comes with wave and flooding, which we haven’t tested,” said FIU’s Lead Researcher Erindam Ganchowdhury. “So, if this was tested under flooding and wind and storm surge, it might have failed earlier.”
Codes on manufactured homes have not been updated in 30 years, so researchers’ goal is to save money on damage as well as save lives.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew made landfall near Homestead as a Category 5 storm with winds of 165 miles per hour, taking 65 lives and causing a little over $27 billion in damage.
“Hurricane winds are very dangerous for these kind of structures, and we need to make sure that the codes, which haven’t changed for decades, they need to be revisited so we can make these homes safer and save lives,” said Ganchowdhury.
Researchers will conduct this experiment two more times using two more structures throughout May.
As for the future of FIU, they said that once they get the funding, they hope to have an even bigger Wall of Wind, with winds speeds that go up to 170 mph, as well as storm surge, all to make sure that lives and money are being saved.
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