IBHS News Releases

Tampa – As tropical storms Bonnie and Charley come ashore – however strong they are – researchers will learn even more about the pressure they put on homes and businesses.
 
The Florida Coastal Monitoring Program (FCMP) has been collecting hurricane wind information near ground level since 1998, using a unique approach to measure both the wind pressures on homes and wind turbulence in the area. 

More than thirty homes in Florida and the Carolinas have been instrumented so far, with up to 28 sensors to measure wind speed and the actual force or pressure it exerts, and a weather station mounted on the roof to collect wind velocity data.  A camera is placed in the yard and wired to a time-lapse VCR set up in a weather resistant box to capture the event on tape.

Towers are deployed near the homes, as well as in optimal locations, to measure eye wall wind velocity.  This ongoing research provides a more realistic view of ground speed winds and how they damage homes, something that hasn't been studied extensively before

Dr. Tim Reinhold, vice president of engineering at the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), one of the researchers involved in this project, works with Florida's Department of Community Affairs, and teams from the University of Florida, Florida International University and Clemson University.  They are set up to monitor two homes in the panhandle and two more in the Naples area.

This detailed data will allow researchers to put a finer point on the relative vulnerability of homes based on their surroundings, construction, and protection measures.  Each storm that hits helps the FCMP gain a better understanding of how to make homes less vulnerable to hurricane winds.

For more on this ongoing research, read the Summer 2004 issue of Disaster Safety Review, a quarterly journal of IBHS.  Request a copy by calling toll free 1 (866) 657-IBHS (4247).