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ABOUT
Natural disasters... you see them every year. Flood waters wash away everything in their path. Hurricanes blow in and wreak havoc on countless lives and landscape. Tornados twist and turn their own path of destruction. Wildfires pop up out of nowhere, charring land and threatening life. The danger of a large, destructive earthquake looms in the minds of many. There isn't a place in the United States that's immune from natural disasters. But homeowners and residents have the power to be prepared for these potentially catastrophic events.
In this 60-minute program, we'll take the viewers around the country to hear firsthand accounts of preparing for disasters from homeowners and experts, to help create "Disaster Resistant Homes."
Living in the mountains of Colorado brings great happiness to the Stych family. After two major fires threatened their home, they've taken the proper steps to protect their home. We'll offer the viewers easy solutions to common wildfire preparation problems from Boulder, Colorado's Wildland Fire Coordinator, Justin Dombrowski. Jim Smalley, from the National Fire Protection Association, will also introduce us to a Central Florida town that has come together to make the community fire resistant.
We'll meet a family from Atascadero, California, that nearly lost their dream home in the hills to an earthquake. We'll see how they rebuilt their home and made it more disaster resistant. We speak with experts at the California Geological Survey. Engineering expert, J. Daniel Dolan, from Washington State University, in Spokane, Washington, shows us the latest in research on building materials for earthquakes and other disasters.
We'll check in on a Punta Gorda, Florida family that lost its home in Hurricane Charley in 2004. The family rebuilt using disaster resistant techniques and construction, and got the first test of the home's strength during Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Other highlights of the program include a conversation with Gene Gruber, a Mitigation Director from FEMA. He speaks about the importance of making homes as disaster resistant as possible, and reinforces the need for flood insurance. Leslie Chapman-Henderson, from the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, helps dispel myths related to home safety in a hurricane, while offering good tips for making all homes more disaster resistant. We travel to Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas to speak with the father of storm shelters, Ernst Kiesling, and understand the latest in tornado technology.
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