KaBOOM!
Late yesterday afternoon I got an email invite to watch some "large missile tests" inside the three-story high-bay structures laboratory on campus. Who could turn down the chance to watch 15-pound 2x4s fly at more than 100 mph toward a safe house? I had no choice but to run over with Tom Shipley, manager of video productions at UMR, to watch lumber splinter into tiny pieces and listen to magnificantly loud explosions.
Each safe house, designed by Kontek Industries of New Madrid, Mo., will be home to 10 New Orleans pump operators for five days the next time a Category 5 (or smaller) hurricane passes by that area. The houses, to be located right next to the pump stations, will be stocked with all necessities -- folding bunkbeds, food and water, air conditioning, restroom facilities and more. The 20 houses will sit 30 feet off the ground to avoid potential storm surges from Lake Pontchartrain.
These safe houses will be built in New Orleans this year by June 1, but had to be tested to pass all FEMA requirements in terms of large missile tests that duplicate the power of large flying debris during Category 5 hurricanes. DJ Belarbi, Curators' Teaching Professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at UMR, had helped Kontek Industries previously with the design of movable bollard systems for counterterrorist large truck attacks and helped them with these large missile tests as well. Though the reinforced-concrete safe house proved to be strong enough, the tests suggested a better design approach for the doors.
Other UMR and Kontek partnerships have included helping to design bomb-resistant buildings and mortar-proof troop housing.
Thanks to Belarbi for the invite.