Gale-force winds, torrential rains, wildfires... Anne Cope has the power to unleash biblical plagues. "We crash-test buildings against Mother Nature's fury," says Cope, research director of the Institute for Business & Home Safety's new $40 million facility in Chester County, South Carolina. It's the site of a six-story, half-acre lab that's so big you could build nine houses inside it—and then destroy them. The insurance companies funding the facility hope the data it uncovers will save lives (and save them a bundle). Here's how they manufacture disaster.
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1. FANS
An array of 105 individually controlled 5.5-foot fans blow 24 million cubic feet of air per minute at speeds of up to 140 miles per hour—the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane.
Photo: Ian Allen
An array of 105 individually controlled 5.5-foot fans blow 24 million cubic feet of air per minute at speeds of up to 140 miles per hour—the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane.
Photo: Ian Allen
