‘Cat 6’ hurricane simulator with 200 mph winds helps researchers

MELBOURNE — The Category 6 hurricane’s howling winds accelerate to a startling 200 mph in Miami, mercilessly pummeling a two-story wood-frame house until the roof tears off and the rattling windows explode.

And a towering 20-foot storm surge spawns battering waves, swamping the structure and shoving it off its foundation like a doomed dollhouse.

Sounds like a scene from a sci-fi disaster movie.

But with real-world Atlantic hurricanes pushing the limits of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, Florida International University researchers envision a future mega-wind-water simulator that tests how building components would react under Cat 6 conditions.

FIU’s Extreme Events Institute already operates the 157-mph Wall of Wind hurricane simulator, where experimental results have been applied to the Florida

GERALD HERBERT/AP Samuael Hernandez, 15, helps his father, Antonio, gut their flooded home in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in LaPlace, La., in 2021.