Engineering Hurricane Protection

UAB engineers are working to develop new building materials to protect people and property from storms as powerful as Category 5 hurricanes. “Improved windstorm and related hazard-reduction measures have the potential over the next 10 years to reduce life and property losses, which will only increase if steps are not taken to help costal communities reduce their vulnerability,” says UAB damage mitigation expert Nasim Uddin, Ph.D. One material Uddin and his team are working on is externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, which are stronger than concrete and can withstand hurricane-force winds, bullets and even explosions. Uddin is organizing an NSF-funded international workshop on disaster mitigation construction in Bangladesh, currently the world’s foremost natural disaster-prone country, in December 2005.