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CNN Live Saturday
How Do You Make Your Home Hurricane-Proof?
Aired August 18, 2001 - 12:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We are right in the middle of hurricane season, and people living in high-risk areas must be wondering how to keep their homes safe and reduce damage. A number of tests are being conducted to find out.
And joining us on the phone to talk about this is Scott Schiss. He's a Clemson University professor who's been working on the hurricane resistance testing project.
Professor Schiss, are you there?
SCOTT SCHISS, PROFESSOR, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Donna.
KELLEY: Hi. Nice to have you join us. OK, what are the tests that you're doing right now?
SCHISS: Well, last week we ran some tests trying to look at the uplift resistance of homes on real structures out in Conway, South Carolina.
KELLEY: And these are homes that have been condemned? You're working on about 15 houses. And what are you checking for? What are you looking at?
SCHISS: Well, one of the things I wanted to do was to -- we knew these houses were built a number years ago. And we tried to improve the forms of the house by retrofitting them to better attach let's say the roof trusses to the walls. Now we're trying to see out effective these retrofit techniques are in actual buildings.
KELLEY: And have you learned anything yet from some of the tests?
SCHISS: Yes, we're starting learn some things that are in, you know, some things that we it can do in the lab are more difficult to do in the field because you have to deal with you know, real construction and some of the constraints that's involved with trying to install one of these retrofit techniques.
KELLEY: We're looking at some pictures now. We're looking at, you know, some of this demolition. You take cranes and crowbars. And one of things that I noticed is that you really need so have a roof that's attached in certain way to help you in a hurricane? Can you explain that?
SCHISS: Well, there's couple of things that we're concerned about. One is just the general loss of your roof covering, your windows and doors, so that you don't have a breach of the envelope that allows you know, wind and the water into the structure. But one of the other failure mechanisms you may have seen a lot of other hurricane video is that the fact that roofs can actually come off the structure due to the uplift load on the roofs. So we're trying to tie that roof down to the main structure.
KELLEY: That's one of the points to make your house safe for a hurricane, along with the roof is that windows are protected. And then also to have a plan.
SCHISS: Yes, I think it's important that you know either -- for either hurricanes or tornadoes, that you have some type of plan that you know that if a hurricane is coming ashore, you know, what are you going to do? How do you protect your house? And then how do you seek safe haven for yourself?
KELLEY: And then the neighborhood, this is something that I didn't even think about, you should check your neighborhood. And what are you looking for there?
SCHISS: Well one of the things they try to do is to minimize the chance for flying debris. And you can do that by looking around your neighborhood and making sure that, you know, garbage cans and lawn furniture and construction sites have all been material that's tied down. So it's not blowing around during these high wind events.
KELLEY: Also double front the doors and sliding doors and then vegetation is what you could term it, looking around to see if you have some tall pine trees and some things like that that probably ought to be removed.
Tell us a little bit more about a safe room, if somebody should be thinking about this? Or if you go on vacation in an area like this, whether it's your house or maybe you go to vacation, what about safe room?
SCHISS: Well, one of things we're working on here at Clemson is trying to develop a safe room using ordinary materials. So that if you happen to have a high wind event warning, such as a tornado, there's at least one small room in your house that can you go to, that you'd be better protected during that event.
KELLEY: All right. Professor Scott Schiss of Clemson University, we're glad you could come talk to us. Thanks, especially as tropical storm Chantal heats up. So it's quite timely. Thank you very much.
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