Phoenix Business Journal
October 15, 2010

A new research center set to open in South Carolina will help study the effects of the severe monsoon storms that hit Arizona.

 The Institute for Business & Home Safety will open a $40 million science research center in Chester County Oct. 19. That facility will simulate weather events such as severe storms, monsoon wind-driven rain, tornados, hailstorms and wildfires that occur in Arizona. The research center also will test hurricane-related weather forces that impact other parts of the U.S.

 The 90-acre research center campus includes labs, a testing site, offices and classroom space. The 21,000-square-foot test chamber is big enough to hold up to nine 2,300-square-foot, fully constructed homes.

 Inside the test chamber, researchers will simulate realistic Category 1, 2, and 3 hurricanes, extra-tropical windstorms, thunderstorm frontal winds, wildfires, and hailstorms in a controlled environment to examine nature’s effects on current building standards.

 In Arizona, extensive damage and property losses result from wildfires, and most recently from severe storms, wind and hail in Phoenix and Tucson, plus tornados in the high country.

 “This ‘real world’ testing will enable Arizona communities to better protect homes and businesses when wildfires and severe weather threaten,” says Ron Williams, executive director of the Arizona Insurance Council, which partners with IBHS on safety and loss reduction and prevention education in Arizona.

 The IBHS is a nonprofit scientific research and communications organization, funded by over 50 property and casualty insurers, reinsurers and associations.

 For more: www.disastersafety.org.