Fall 2008 Climate Alert
Puebla and the Tickell Observatory [ PDF ]
In this Newsletter:
Dr. Stephen Leatherman at the Forefront of Hurricane Research
While Gustav, Hanna and Ike pummeled the United States, Haiti and Cuba this August and September, causing billions of dollars in damage and taking hundreds of lives, Dr. Stephen Leatherman has been taking a closer look at hurricanes past and present. Dr.
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Leatherman, Board member of the Climate Institute for 20 years, recently co-authored Hurricanes: Causes, Effects and the Future. An authority on climate and weather, and more popularly known as Dr. Beach, (expert on beach erosion and storm impacts, and internationally known for his annual 10 Best Beaches list), Dr. Leatherman provides a comprehensive and scientific account of hurricanes from the historic Galveston storm of 1900 to the devastating Katrina of 2005. Hurricanes includes gripping stories of survival and damage, explanations of wind speed, rain, and the eye of the hurricane, and dramatic diagrams and stunning photographs. With the publication of Hurricanes, Dr. Leatherman has taken a significant step towards his goal of promoting public awareness of hurricanes’ destructiveness and encouraging measures to prevent damage. |
Dr. Leatherman is also achieving that goal on another front. In his eleven years at Florida International University, Dr. Leatherman has worked tirelessly to make FIU’s International Hurricane Research Center the premier hurricane mitigation center in the world. Using state and private grants, including $10 million from the highly competitive Florida Center of Excellence competition, Dr. Leatherman and FIU are at the cutting-edge of hurricane research. The Wall of Wind (WoW) project is a hurricane-simulating system that produces 130 mph winds and includes water-injection to simulate horizontal rainfall and debris-
propulsion to provide a storm’s full effect. According to the Miami Herald’s recent article on the WoW project, FIU “is building an 8,000-square-foot facility on its engineering campus to house the hurricane simulator, which eventually will be an array of 12 massive electric industrial fans that can belt out monster winds of more than 150 mph and driving rain.” The simulator will barrage a two-story house inside the simulator. A rotating platform will allow wind and rain to come down on the structure from various angles. High-speed video cameras will capture the destruction caused by the simulated storm, allowing researchers to study, in a controlled environment, exactly how things break during hurricanes. Dr. Leatherman hopes the WoW project will do for hurricane awareness what crash dummies in staged car accidents did for automobile safety awareness. |
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The goal of Dr. Leatherman’s research is to understand which materials and building standards make for the safest home and mitigate the effects of intense wind and rain. Already, 70 companies have contacted Dr. Leatherman asking to test their materials in the Wall of Wind, and there are plans to test the strength of whole houses in the simulator. Hurricanes will continue to hit Florida and the U.S., but with improved building construction, residents and the government will be safer and will avoid financial damages. The International Hurricane Research Center is “doing great things to help people help themselves,” says Dr. Leatherman, whose leadership and vision have helped achieve such prestige for IHRC, for FIU and for the Climate Institute.
Other Articles in this Newsletter:
Tom Roper Honored for Pioneering Leadership in Climate Protection
Puebla and the Tickell Observatory: Moving a Nation to the Front in Climate Protection
Stephen Leatherman a la vanguardia de la respuesta a los huracanes
Climate Institute Awards [ Reconocimientos en Español ]