At least five storms over the past decade would fit a new classification beyond Category 5—and engineers are working to figure out how to withstand them.
Two model homes inside Florida International University's"Wall of Wind" facility—one with an upgraded roof and one without—will face hurricane force winds. After Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992, local building codes were updated to fortify homes again hurricanes.Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
“I want to be seeing research and testing in the 170-, 190-mph range. A lot of the research is at lower wind speeds, but I need to be changing to extreme wind speeds because that’s where nature is going,” says Richard Olson, the institute’s director. “Who wants to be explaining in 20 years, ‘Ya—I knew this was coming but we didn’t do anything about it.’”
A single fan at the testing facility is 15,000 pounds. It takes 12 to generate Category 5 hurricane wind speeds.A report released in August For now, the new FIU facility is going by NICHE, mercifully short for National Full-Scale Testing Infrastructure for Community Hardening in Extreme Wind, Surge, and Wave Events. It will be 40 feet tall, Chowdhury says, twice the height of the Wall of Wind’s home, to test two-story buildings.
“Radical,” he acknowledges, sounds extreme but doesn’t mean everyone in south Florida will need to build a bunker. He describes walls reinforced with concrete, concrete roofs, and coverings that protect windows from flying debris. At best, she says, building codes help individuals survive storms but homes still face costly, structural damage. Implementing better upgrades can help save lives and livelihoods.