Wind Damage Research Aims To Improve Building Resiliency

At a research facility in South Carolina, scientists and researchers harness the destructive forces of hurricanes and bend them to their will. "We’re actually creating hurricanes around structures very much like Mother Nature would do," Julie Rochman said. She’s the president and CEO of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. Its headquarters is in Tampa. “This is truly a force of nature being imitated very meticulously,” Rochman said. “What is unique about the IBHS Research Center is that we’re the only facility that can do full scale testing, so we don’t need to shrink nails and shingles down to which their physical properties would change.”