Hurricane Force: Can Your Home Survive?
CHETRY: Some "Quick Hits" for you now. And this is what Chad was talking about a couple minutes ago in his weather report. In Colorado yesterday, it was an unusual storm, grape-sized hail pounding Denver. It wasn't necessarily the size, but just how much they got. Four inches in some parts. It ended up looking like snow on the ground. Heavy rain also flooding intersections there and stranding drivers. Not fun. End of May in Denver looking much like winter in other places. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin will give his state of the city address tonight. It will be the first since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August of 2005. The Coast Guard says it's now better prepared to face a disaster like Katrina. Admiral Thad Allen says there is now a special Coast Guard unit to respond to disasters. We remember how instrumental the Coast Guard was in helping pluck people off of roofs during Hurricane Katrina, saving countless lives, people, as well as animals. Thad Allen, by the way, gave details at a news conference, and he's going to give more of them at a news conference taking place a little later this morning -- John.</s>ROBERTS: Well, the 2007 hurricane season begins on Friday. Experts say there could be five major hurricanes this year that's Category 3 and up, with winds over 111 miles an hour, the point at which buildings start to take heavy damage. CNN's John Zarrella is live in Gainesville, Florida, this morning with something new to help us make it through hurricanes. What have you discovered, John?</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, it sure is. Well, engineers and engineering students here at the University of Florida are literally creating hurricane conditions. What they're doing is using these enormous motors here and these huge fans. And the idea is to ultimately build better homes. What's unique about this entire project is that they don't test individual components of homes, but the entire structure in a real-world setting.</s>ZARRELLA (voice over): Two twin turbo diesel engines produce 2,800 horsepower, driving eight enormous fans. The University of Florida engineering team had never done this test on this scale before. The idea, focus hurricane-force winds in excess of 100 miles an hour on a simulated house. In other words, how will your windows, doors and roof perform in a hurricane as a whole, not as individual pieces?</s>FORREST MASTERS, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: If you're a homeowner, you want a house that has every single part of that house designed for a particular wind speed, not a range of wind speeds.</s>ZARRELLA: For this test, a 1970s style window was used. Common today in millions of older homes. How will it perform? And the rest of the structure, the shingles and wood frame, built by the team to new tougher hurricane codes. Let's see. Within seconds, hurricane-force winds and rain are pummeling the side of the wood frame. The pressure is too much, the top pane of glass blows in. Seconds later, the rest gives way. The shingles peel back, but stay in tact, as does the wood frame. Full-scale testing like this may answer what fails and why.</s>LESLIE CHAPMAN, FEDERAL ALLIANCE FOR SAFE HOMES: Whether it's just a tornado, a hurricane, or even an ordinary thunderstorm. So, we are answering questions by doing this before a storm. It tells us how to build it differently so we can prevent the damage in the first place.</s>ZARRELLA: Damage like this -- a home obliterated in Hurricane Charley. Its unprotected windows blown in. The outcome clear here in the real world and in the lab.</s>ZARRELLA: A pretty clear idea right there why you need to put shutters up if you have those old-style windows and don't have impact- resistant glass. You know, what's unique about this is this is a test bed to test this equipment, but, ultimately, it's mobile, John. They can take this out on the road, you can bring this entire apparatus into a neighborhood or a development and see how the entire structure, as a whole, will perform in a major hurricane -- John.</s>ROBERTS: So, they're investigating the wind, but as my former colleague who is one of the great hurricane hunters of our generation, Dan Rather, used to tell me, it's not the wind, it's the water. Is there any way to test a building's resistance to that storm surge and the water that comes ashore at the leading edge of a hurricane?</s>ZARRELLA: No, not really, not at this point. Not that I know of, anyway. And you're right, water -- you know, nine out of 10 people who die in a hurricanes die in the water. And a lot more now from inland flooding than every before because our technology allows us to get people back from the coast and the initial storm surge. So that is still one of the biggest bugaboos in hurricanes, is death caused by water -- John.</s>ROBERTS: Of course, though, the majority of the structures are inland, not there on the coastline. And it's always good to have those built to new specifications.</s>ZARRELLA: Yes.</s>ROBERTS: All right. John Zarrella, thanks very much. Really interesting stuff, John.</s>CHETRY: Twenty-five minutes past the hour now. Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business". Two new gadgets, I guess you could say, from Microsoft, because they're not even a computer. It's a pen, right?</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. There are two things coming out today. And the thing that's really interesting is -- I'm really into gadgets, but in these particular cases, these two things might actually change the way computing is done. One of them being unveiled by Microsoft today is called Surface. Now, basically, it's a table. It's 30 inches on the diagonal, and you can see pictures of it there. The idea is that it's a variation on what we think of as an input device, a keyboard. Fundamentally, when you think of how kids deal with things today, with the various types of devices they use, input is not just key input. So, this thing is a table. It allows you to touch and move things around. The way it works is there are five wireless cameras situated. So when you put your hand on it, you can move something around the way you would move it on a table.</s>CHETRY: How do you type, though?</s>VELSHI: Well, it's getting away from the typing as an input. This is a new way of doing things. So, you've got a picture on your cell phone, you put the picture on the table. It will read the picture, and then you can move that picture around and store it and do different things. It's like thinking about an iPod or thinking about a cell phone. You use things, get away from the idea that it's technical input.</s>CHETRY: Right. Like I don't need to ask you, how do you put this cassette tape into the iPod, because you don't even use them anymore.</s>VELSHI: Right, exactly. That's the point. The other thing that's coming out is a simple pen. It's from a company called LiveScribe. Now, if you have kids and you've seen this LeapFrog fly pentop, same concept, same technology. It uses a special paper that has dots on it, and a sensor on the pen reads those dots. By the way, this will be available in October for around $200. The nifty thing here is that the company that makes this wants to create a community of programmers for it. So, it's not just sort of a single purpose or multipurpose pen. The idea is your pen becomes your input device, and computers, people who design software around the world, will find ways for you to compute using this pen.</s>CHETRY: But it's still making my head spin.</s>VELSHI: Look at these two. They're looking at me like I have three heads. This could be the future. Save this tape. Today might be the day the future began, or not.</s>CHETRY: OK.</s>ROBERTS: Ultimately, when you just talk to the computer, that will be the whole...</s>VELSHI: We're getting there. We're getting there.</s>ROBERTS: Thanks, Ali.</s>CHETRY: You talk to your computer anyway, but it doesn't get you anywhere yet.</s>ROBERTS: It doesn't do anything. It just sits there and listens. "Quick Hits" now. The top story on CNN.com. A 25-year-old woman and her three young daughters were found dead, hanging in a closet in their home in Hudson Oaks, Texas. Amazingly, another child, an 8-month-old, survived the hanging. Police believe it was a murder-suicide because the doors were locked from the inside. Also on our most popular list this morning, health officials are looking for fellow passengers of a man infected with a highly drug- resistant strain of tuberculosis who took two overseas flights. Right after the break we're going to talk with the reporter who has spoken with the patient about why he took those flights against doctors' orders. And tracking your every move. A college professor who came under suspicion after 9/11 devises a way to prove he's not a terrorist. We'll meet him later on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.